BELLEVUE, Wash., April 30, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Likewise, the leader in delivering authentication, policy, and audit solutions for mixed networks, announced today it has closed a $10 million Series C round of funding. Current investors Ignition Partners, Trinity Ventures and Intel Capital led the round.
"Likewise really stands out in the current economic climate in terms of growth, balance sheet, and team," said John Connors, of Ignition Partners and the former CFO of Microsoft. "They are on a tear with a disruptive business model, strong partnerships, and a clear road to profitability."
The funding will be used to support growth in new markets, as well as additional development resources for product line expansion.
Likewise provides identity management solutions designed to improve security and operational efficiencies by integrating Linux, Unix and Mac systems with Microsoft Active Directory. Likewise's solutions make it easy to authenticate users, control access to applications and data, centrally manage settings with group policies, and create reports for regulatory audits.
"Because of our strong financial growth and careful expense management, we were able to raise capital in a challenging market," said Barry Crist, CEO, of Likewise Software. "On top of a great year in 2008, our first quarter in 2009 is the best in the company's history. We're hitting on all cylinders and clearly delivering the highest customer value in our category."
Including this round, Likewise has raised a total of $27 million in venture financing.
About Ignition Partners
Ignition Partners (www.ignitionpartners.com) is a premier private investment group with offices in Bellevue, Washington and Shanghai China. Its three categories of funds -- early stage venture, growth capital and China ventures -- brings together an unparalleled combination of domain focus, functional expertise and global operational experience with partners from leadership positions at Microsoft, McCaw Cellular Communications, AT&T Wireless, Cisco, Starbucks and other industry leaders.
About Trinity Ventures
Trinity Ventures, a 22-year veteran in the venture business with more than $1 billion under management, partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build great companies. Trinity Ventures focuses on early-stage technology investment opportunities with a particular emphasis on the digital media, Internet services, mobility, security and software markets. Trinity has invested in more than 100 ventures, including such leading companies as Aruba Networks, Blue Nile, Crescendo Communications, Extreme Networks, Forte Software, Illustra, LoopNet, Photobucket (acquired by News Corporation), Speedera Networks (acquired by Akamai Technologies), Starbucks and Sygate Technologies (acquired by Symantec). www.trinityventures.com
About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer Internet, semiconductor manufacturing, and clean tech. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than $7.5 billion in approximately 1,000 companies in 45 countries. In that timeframe, 168 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 212 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2007, Intel Capital invested about $639 million in 166 deals with approximately 37 percent of funds invested outside the United States. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com.
About Likewise
Likewise provides identity management solutions designed to improve security and operational efficiencies and help achieve regulatory compliance in mixed network environments. Likewise Open allows large organizations to securely authenticate Linux, Unix and Mac systems with a unified directory such as Microsoft Active Directory. Likewise Enterprise includes all of the core authentication technology that comes with Likewise Open, plus world-class migration, group policy, audit and reporting modules. For more information, visit www.likewise.com.
Likewise is a trademark of Likewise Software. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.