Swedish ERP vendor Intentia International AB has raised $85 million in venture capital investment and will use it to expand marketing and sales in North America, according to Allan Davies, the company's chief marketing officer.
Intentia, which reported revenues of $360 million in 2003, raised the cash from two sources: Symphony Technology Group LLC and Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC. Davies said Intentia plans to double its 100-person U.S. employee count and sign up as many as 10 value-added reseller partners in 2005.
Intentia has been marketing its suite of ERP, EPM, CRM, e-business and SCM software directly to mid-size companies in the U.S. for the past three years. Most of its sales, however, have been to U.S. divisions of food, apparel and general manufacturing companies that are headquartered outside North America and use Intentia software.
So far, Davies said, Intentia has about 200 customers in the U.S. compared to 3,500 worldwide, but it hopes to grow its North American business by 30% in 2005, and it will seek to grow its customer base through acquisition.
This article is repurposed from the January 2005 edition of Managing Automation magazine.