Venture Capitalists Invest $5.75 Million in Eastern Canadian Technology Innovator
AnyWare Group’s Success and Expansion Gets Financial Nod from VCs
Saint John, NB — February 12, 2007 — AnyWare Group (AWG) a leading provider of customer driven access solutions today announced that it has closed a $5.75 million of venture financing. GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund, GrowthWorks Canadian Fund, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation welcomed Export Development Canada (EDC) in this investment round. This financing, the largest in the past 4 years for a New Brunswick technology company, comes on the heels of recent sales growth and positions the company to gain a significant share of the growing secure access infrastructure market.
"AnyWare Group’s ability to attract a stellar group of investors is a strong validation of the company,” said Gerry Verner, chief executive officer, AnyWare Group. “This funding strengthens our position in the market and provides us with the financial agility to support the needs of our customers while investing in continued research and development of our industry leading ROAM and MyCareAnyWare offerings."
"ROAM has provided Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation with a significant communications platform that has allowed us to provide critical information to our clinical and administrative staff where and when they need it,” said Dora Nicinski, chief executive officer, Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation. “We are now embarking on key research initiatives through MyCareAnyWare with our chronically ill patient population."
"Our investment in AnyWare Group continues to demonstrate our commitment to funding the development of businesses in Atlantic Canada,” said Thomas J. Hayes, President and CEO of GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund. “AnyWare Group is the eighth company in which we have made an investment in the Atlantic region in the last two years.
"BDC's investment in AnyWare Group will allow the company to accelerate the development and penetration of the North American Health Care market with its' innovative and market leading technology", said Tony Van Bommel Director, Venture Capital of the Business Development Bank of Canada located in Halifax. "We are pleased to be a significant partner with our continued support of this innovative Atlantic Canadian company."
"At an early stage, we foresaw the potential for AnyWare Group’s ROAM offering and witnessed first hand the company’s progress and growth to date” said Barrie Black, President and CEO of NBIF. “We are excited about the company’s prospects and this follow-on investment reaffirms our commitment to support the company’s expansion to a prominent market position."
AnyWare Group is an innovative provider of customer-driven access solutions through its flagship technology Role Oriented Access Management (ROAM). Built on industry leading security technologies, ROAM offers a secure access infrastructure enhancing an organization’s efficiencies by enabling real-time viewing and retrieval of its applications and information rapidly and securely from any location in the world. Organizations use ROAM to access mission critical transactions and deliver sensitive, data intensive messages and information. Through a single integrated interface, ROAM streamlines each user’s access to the applications and information they need to perform their role within an organization. Capable of adding users in minutes, ROAM is immediately scalable to meet the demand created by any critical emergency.
About AnyWare Group
AnyWare Group is an innovative provider of customer-driven business solutions. Leveraging the Internet and the ROAM platform, AnyWare Group cost effectively enables organizations to deploy highly reliable, secure information-based business solutions. ROAM is a complete, secure platform for delivering information and applications to authorized users where they need it. ROAM is packaged with powerful tools, capabilities and engineering services designed to simplify the user experience, integrate with any application, and ease support efforts.
About GrowthWorks Atlantic
GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund is an Atlantic Canadian venture capital fund that provides tax savings for investors and investment capital for Atlantic Canadian businesses.
GrowthWorks* (www.growthworks.ca) is a recognized leader in venture capital fund management with proven experience in the raising, investing and managing of capital. GrowthWorks managed funds, including GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund, the Working Opportunity Fund, GrowthWorks Canadian Fund, and GrowthWorks Commercialization Fund, have approximately $800 million in combined assets.
About BDC
BDC Venture Capital is a major venture capital investor in Canada, active at every stage of the company's development cycle, from seed through expansion, with a focus on technology-based businesses that have high growth potential and that are positioned to become dominant players in their markets. BDC Venture Capital has been involved in venture capital since 1975 and has to date invested in more than 400 different companies. It currently manages approximately $500 million in venture capital assets invested in the areas of Life Sciences, Telecommunications, Information Technology, Advanced Technologies and Funds Investments.
About New Brunswick Innovation Foundation
The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation is an independent corporation focused on stimulating innovation as a means of improving productivity and enhancing the knowledge-based economy. The Foundation supports the development and growth of promising, innovation-based start-up and early stage companies in New Brunswick, by providing companies and entrepreneurs alike with enhanced access to risk capital, value-added support and networking opportunities. For more information, please see www.nbif.ca.
About EDC
EDC provides trade finance and risk management services to Canadian exporters and investors in up to 200 markets. Through its Equity Team, EDC also invests private equity and venture capital to facilitate the business expansion and export growth of Canadian companies. Partnering with EDC leverages access to a unique combination of financial tools, expertise, and international networks.
For More Information Contact
Naheed Ahmed
MAVERICK for AnyWare Group
416-640-5525 ext. 224
naheeda@maverickpr.com
GrowthWorks
Rayanne Brennan
506.961.3633
BDC
Tony Van Bommel
Director, BDC Venture Capital
902.426.9014
tony.vanbommel@bdc.ca
New Brunswick Innovation Foundation
Isabelle Losier
Director of Communications
506.452.7782
Isabelle.losier@nbif.ca
EDC
Phil Taylor
Public Affairs
613.598.2904
ptaylor@edc.ca
*GrowthWorks refers to affiliates of GrowthWorks Ltd. and includes: GrowthWorks Capital Ltd., manager of the Working Opportunity Fund (EVCC) Ltd.; GrowthWorks WV Management Ltd., manager of GrowthWorks Canadian Fund Ltd. and GrowthWorks Commercialization Fund Ltd.; and GrowthWorks Atlantic Ltd., manager of GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund Ltd.