Automsoft signs new`multimillion' dollar deal: ThePost.ie


TCH Archives > Sunday Business Post > 2003/08/03 > Automsoft signs new`multimillion' dollar deal

Automsoft signs new`multimillion' dollar deal
Sunday, August 03, 2003
By Gavin Daly and Adrian Weckler
Automsoft, the Dublin data management software firm, has signed a "multimillion dollar" deal with a global biotechnology company which grows hamster ovaries to harvest their enzymes. According to the company's ch ief exe c utive, Parai c O'Toole, it has also drawn down €1.2 million of its last €6 million funding round.The latest funding brings the company's total backing to more than €10 million.

The deal is with an existing customer of Automsoft, according to O'Toole.

The company lists pharmaceutical companies Wyeth, Pfizer and Roche among its clients, and it also plans to target food, drinks and utilities firms.

O'Toole said that the multi-million dollar deal was a formal one "for cash", unlike many other software deals being agreed in the market at present.

"The deal is a global deal, insofar as [the other company] has a number of plants around the world," said O'Toole.

He said that he could not say any more about it, partly because of his customer's production processes.One activity of the company in question is to nurture and grow hamster ovaries for the purpose of harvesting their enzymes.

O'Toole said that the company was spending its funding a lot slower than anticipated "because of the positive way business is going".

He said that the new multimillion dollar funding was the "smallest" the company was likely to do in the next six to eight months. As a result, the last €6 million round was `tranched' and would now take some time to spend, he said.

IDG Ventures led the round in April this year, investing €500,000 in Automsoft. The company's other venture capitalist backers, Pentech, Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, Crucible and Barisal, also participated in the round.

Automsoft's software allows companies to capture low-level information on the factory floor and monitor and manage it to provide focused reports.

Chaired by former Elan boss Donal Geaney, Automsoft employs 27 people and has, according to O'Toole, one of the strongest management teams in the Irish software sector. O'Toole is a former vice-president of Cambridge Technology Partners.

"We're fulfilling what we always said we would do, which is to build enterprise software for large corporates," said O'Toole.