deCarta Raises $15 Million in Expansion Round of Funding
San Jose, Calif. – July 24, 2007 – deCarta, the leading supplier of software and services for the Location-Based Services (LBS) industry, today announced the close of a $15-million Series C-1 expansion round of funding led by existing investor Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). Other existing investors, Mobius Venture Capital and Cardinal Venture Capital, were also participants in the round. The financing will be used to accelerate the growth of the organization in new markets and to expand its international reach to further capitalize on deCarta’s industry-leading LBS software platforms.
Founded in 1996 and headquartered in San Jose, CA, deCarta is the leading geospatial software platform that has enabled some of the industry’s most successful LBS applications such as those deployed by Google, Ask.com, Verizon and Sprint. deCarta’s software platform gives LBS providers and application developers the ability to quickly build applications integrating a wide variety of map and data sources to provide complex mapping, routing and spatial search functions. The company’s non-branded software platform and personal navigation software solutions enable its customers in the Internet, mobile, personal navigation and enterprise markets to customize their mapping application to their own desired unique look and feel. deCarta’s solutions are highly scalable, providing customers with exceptional flexibility, utility and unparalleled performance.
"This round of funding validates the significant momentum and success deCarta has achieved and the tremendous opportunities in the marketplace that lie ahead of us," said J. Kim Fennell, president and CEO of deCarta. “We're thrilled to have the ongoing support of our initial investors in this expansion round, and we plan to use the funds to fully leverage our unique LBS technology to more broadly serve the marketplace."
""The market for location-based products and applications is expanding dramatically worldwide,” said Jeff Crowe, general partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “We are excited about deCarta's leadership position in this burgeoning sector, and are extremely confident in deCarta’s experienced management team and the company’s ability meet the rising demand for advanced LBS solutions in each of their target markets.”
About deCarta
deCarta is the leading geospatial software platform that has enabled some of the industry’s most successful Location-Based Services (LBS) applications such as those deployed at Ask.com, Google, Verizon and Sprint. The company's unique, patented technology is ideal for high-volume LBS applications for use in Internet, mobile, personal navigation and enterprise applications where scalability, speed, and reliability are vital. Its Drill Down Server geospatial software platform, Rich Map Engine and Hosted Web Service are preferred by application developers and service providers who also want the flexibility to customize map styles, utilize unique routing capabilities and self brand. deCarta customers and technology partners include AND, Appello, Ask.com, ATX, AutoTrader.com, Google, Hotels.com, Local Matters, Maps.com, Motorola, NAVTEQ, Networks In Motion, Pharos, Rand McNally, Tele Atlas, TeleNav, TopTable.com, and Zillow. deCarta is privately held and headquartered in San Jose, California with international offices in the UK and China. http://www.decarta.com.
deCarta, the deCarta logo and Drill Down Server are trademarks or registered trademarks of deCarta, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other product or company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture capital firm that has partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 45 years. NVP focuses on investments in information technology including: consumer Internet and media, software, services, enterprise and communications systems, and semiconductor/components. The firm currently manages more than $2.5 billion in venture capital out of its office in Palo Alto, California.
NVP has funded over 400 companies since inception. Some of the firm’s recent investments and transactions include Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), deCarta, Double Fusion, mBlox, Mercora, Resonext Communications (acquired by RF Micro Devices), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance), TURN, and Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola). NVP has also funded such market leaders as Actel Corporation, Brocade Communications, Cerent (acquired by Cisco Systems), Documentum, Extreme Networks, Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), PeopleSoft and Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM). For more information, please visit www.nvp.com.
Robert Young
deCarta
Director, Marketing Communications
T: +1 408-625-3567
ryoung@decarta.com
Katie Belding
Norwest Venture Partners
T:+1 650.321.8000
kbelding@nvp.com
For press related inquiries about deCarta please email pr@decarta.com.