V.i. Labs Secures $8 Million in Funding to Extend Product Leadership in Growing Software Protection Market
Investment Will Enable Acceleration of CodeArmor Platform Development, Expanded Sales and Marketing Efforts
Waltham, MA — November 6, 2007 - V.i. Laboratories, Inc. (“V.i. Labs”), a
provider of software protection solutions for securing high-value and mission-critical
applications, announced today it has closed $8 million in Series B funding.
The new financing was led by Ascent Venture Partners of Boston and Core Capital
Partners of Washington, D.C. Both organizations focus on financing and supporting
emerging market leaders. This latest round also includes additional financing from
existing V.i. Labs investor Rockford Capital.
“We secured this funding based on our ability to differentiate our product from
complex alternatives, while capturing a large share of the emerging software protection
market,” said Joe Noonan, CEO and President of V.i. Labs. “Our existing customers
and pipeline reinforce our ability to lead in this space. With this financial backing
from Ascent, Core Capital and Rockford, we will be able to expand our engineering
team and elevate sales and marketing efforts.”
“We are seeing companies across the globe become more concerned with security as
it relates to their systems development lifecycle. Organizations need to be able
to deploy software that does not contain critical vulnerabilities and to protect
against code theft – the intellectual property resident within the software,” said
Diana Kelley, Vice President and Service Director at the Burton Group, a leading
market analyst firm in the computer security market. “As a result, solutions that
can help organizations protect applications and other IP are in increasing demand.”
The new investment into V.i. Labs underscores the large opportunity in the software
protection market which is being driven by:
- Rampant software piracy and theft of code in emerging markets
- Global outsourcing of software development
- Foreign sponsored cyber warfare
- Increasing sophistication of hacker threats to enterprise applications
V.i. Labs is the first company to offer a commercial product that can simplify and
automate the process of embedding comprehensive protection capabilities within a
wide variety of native Microsoft Windows™ and Microsoft .NET applications. Markets
ideally suited for application protection provided by V.i. Labs’ CodeArmor include
independent software vendors, embedded systems and application providers, Internet
gaming, government, and any corporation that wishes to protect its intellectual
property from the threats of piracy.
About Ascent Venture Partners
Ascent has been investing in early-stage, emerging technology companies since 1985.
In backing over 90 companies, Ascent has remained committed to its mission of investing
in exceptional entrepreneurs striving to build innovative market leaders. Ascent
is an active and supportive investor, taking pride in the number of entrepreneurs
who choose to work with Ascent on multiple opportunities. With over 80 years of
combined venture capital experience, the Ascent investment team manages $380M in
committed capital, including its current fund of $140M. Additional information is
available at www.ascentvp.com.
About Core Capital
In business since 1999, Core Capital (www.core-capital.com)is
a Washington, DC-based venture fund with over $350 million under management. The
firm invests in a wide range of technologies with a particular focus on telecommunications
hardware and software, wireless applications, enterprise software, network security,
e-commerce, logistics and tracking, energy and power management in addition to web
and communications services. Sample portfolio companies include Sourcefire, NexTone
Communications, InPhonic, buySAFE, Roundbox, Trust Digital, Infinite Power Solutions,
SwapDrive and IXI. To learn more, please email us at info@core-capital.com. for
more information.
About Rockford Capital
Founded in 2006, Rockford Capital is a private equity group based in Wilmington,
Delaware formed to invest in and bring to market innovative Internet technologies.
Rockford Capital was founded by industry luminaries’ intent on expanding investments
in the Internet technology arena. V.i. Laboratories was its first software security
investment. For more information visit Rockford Capital’s website
www.rockford-capital.com.
About V.i. Laboratories (V.i. Labs)
V.i. Labs provides software protection solutions that protect against the misappropriation
and theft of intellectual property resident in software applications. Through V.i.
Labs’ patent-pending technology, software vendors, embedded system providers, enterprise
organizations and government agencies are able to easily secure their software against
the threat of piracy, tampering and theft, independent of where the applications
are distributed. V.i. Labs is privately held and is headquartered in Waltham, MA.
For more information please visit www.vilabs.com.
©2007 V.i. Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. V.i. Labs, CodeArmor and the
V.i. Labs logo, are trademarks of V.i. Laboratories, Inc. All other product and
brand names herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Victor DeMarines
V.i. Laboratories, Inc.
781.398.3400
vdemarines@vilabs.com
Gene Carozza/Jason O'Keefe
PAN Communications
978.474.1900
vilaboratories@pancomm.com