SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 1, 2003–Broad Daylight, a leading developer of enterprise self-service solutions and call center software, today announced the completion of a $5 millionround of financing led by new investor Peninsula Equity Partners. Also participating in this round are Mobius Venture Capital, Nexus Group, and The Entrepreneurs’ Fund.
In conjunction with the funding, Peninsula Equity Partners’ co-founder Greg Ennis will become a member of the Broad Daylight board of directors. Ennis joins current board members Heidi Roizen, Managing Director of Mobius Venture Capital; William Weathersby, General Partner of Nexus Group; Hon Wong, General Partner of Wongfratis; and Louise Kirkbride, CEO of Broad Daylight, Inc.
Gaining Momentum
The successful completion of this round of financing represents another important milestone for Broad Daylight. The Company has been recognized for several significant accomplishments in 2003:
— A record number of Fortune 500 corporations and government
agencies purchased, renewed, expanded, or extended their Broad
Daylight eService deployments; including: BellSouth, Cisco
Systems, Deluxe Corporation, Eastman Kodak, Hilton Hotels,
McDonalds, the National Association of Securities Dealers
(NASD), Quantum Corporation, SBC Communications, the
Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Corporation (SEC).
— Overall customer renewal rate exceeded 95%
— Gartner, Inc., an independent research and advisory firm,
listed Broad Daylight as a “Visionary” in its 2003 e-Service
Magic Quadrant.(1)
— Broad Daylight launched the first voice-activated self-service
product in the eService market, VoiceFAQs, which uses speech
recognition technology to reduce costs and improve customer
service.
Greg Ennis of Peninsula Equity Partners said, “Broad Daylight is successfully adding new Fortune 500 customers despite the difficult economic climate. The company has created a business model that is particularly attractive in these cost-conscious times, and unique in the eService sector: it enables businesses to launch an enterprise eService program without any upfront investment in infrastructure. This allows companies to reap the economic benefits of self-service without any initial expenditures for hardware, databases, or network resources.”
eService Market Poised for Growth
Recent studies by leading technology research firms have pointed to eService as one of the bright spots in the CRM software market. Forrester Research reports, “When it comes to funding gains in 2003, self-service technology tops the list.”(2) Additional Forrester studies indicate that “50 percent of firms expect to increase eService spending in 2004. Firms expect online self-service to absorb 23% of their incoming call volume over the next two years.”(3)
Heidi Roizen of Mobius Venture Capital agrees. Roizen said, “The eService sector is poised for significant growth as large corporations and government agencies actively look for ways to reduce support costs without sacrificing service quality. eService solutions like Broad Daylight’s allow companies to shift inquiries from more expensive service channels — such as phone, email, and in-person — to the Web. Broad Daylight takes this concept a step further by also improving the quality and efficiency of traditional service channels, such as the call center and the corporate help desk.”
About Peninsula Equity Partners
Peninsula Equity Partners is a private venture capital firm that invests in and helps build early stage technology and healthcare companies. Prior to creating Peninsula, the Peninsula partners spent ten years managing the U.S. operations of Thompson Clive & Partners, a London-based international venture capital firm. The Peninsula partners spend a disproportionate amount of time working with their entrepreneurs to build successful companies. Peninsula Equity Partners is on the Web at: www.PeninsulaEquity.com.
About Mobius Venture Capital
With offices in Palo Alto, California and Superior, Colorado, Mobius Venture Capital is a $2 billion U.S.-based private equity venture capital firm managed by an unparalleled team of former CEOs and entrepreneurs, technology pioneers, senior executives from major technology corporations, and leaders in the investment banking community. Mobius Venture Capital combines its technology expertise and broad financial assets with the industry’s best entrepreneurs to create a powerhouse portfolio of over 100 of the world’s leading high technology companies. For more information on the fund’s investment team, technology vision and portfolio companies, please visit www.mobiusvc.com.
About Broad Daylight
Broad Daylight is a customer relationship management (CRM) software developer that provides solutions for enterprise self-service, call center productivity, and knowledge management. The company’s eService software reduces customer support costs while capturing and retaining corporate knowledge, and is designed to integrate seamlessly with leading CRM suites, call tracking, and help desk applications. Companies using Broad Daylight are able to answer questions on the Web at a low cost-per-contact, and at the same time empower call center agents to handle email and phone inquiries more effectively. Broad Daylight, Inc. is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and is on the Web at: www.BroadDaylight.com.
Magic Quadrant is a trademark of Gartner, Inc.
Broad Daylight, Broad Mind, and VoiceFAQs are trademarks of Broad Daylight, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
(1) Gartner, Inc., E-Service Suite 1H03 Magic Quadrant, Esteban
Kolsky, March 28, 2003. The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted in 2003
by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. Gartner’s
permission to print or reference its Magic Quadrant should not be
deemed to be an endorsement of any company or product depicted in
the quadrant.
(2) Forrester Research, CRM Status: Deployment And Funding Levels, by
Bruce Temkin with Liz Herbert, Feb. 10, 2003.
(3) Forrester Research, Mastering Online Customer Service, by Bruce
Temkin with Bob Chatham, Hillary Drohan, Katharine M. Gardiner,
July 2002; and CRM’s Future: Humble Growth Through 2007, by Bob
Chatham, with Bruce Temkin, Katharine M. Gardiner, and Taichi
Nakashima, July 2002.
