Eloqua Corporation Secures $12.8 Million in B-Round Venture Funding
Bay Partners & JMI Equity Lead Investment as Market Heats Up for Demand Generation Software
September 6, 2006
Eloqua Corporation, the leading supplier of automated demand generation software and services for business-to-business marketers, today announced that the company has closed $12.8 million in a second round of venture funding led by Bay Partners and JMI Equity. The company will use this round of funding to broaden its sales and marketing reach, both in North America and internationally. This equity financing will also fund the company’s strategy to accelerate growth of its award-winning demand-generation platform, the Eloqua Conversion Suite™ by offering applications and services that simplify the adoption of marketing best practices in areas such as lead generation and management, lead qualification and scoring and events management.
“Bay Partners and JMI recognize that there is an accelerating change underway in the marketing world as businesses transform customer acquisition into a measurable and repeatable process,” said Mark Organ, CEO and co-founder of Eloqua. “Eloqua has been at the forefront of this change and expects to strengthen this leadership position by making it even easier for customers to produce qualified sales leads in an increasingly competitive marketplace.”
“Eloqua has brought accountability to the forefront of business-to-business marketing and transformed the way marketing and sales teams work together to achieve maximum results,” said Neal Dempsey, managing general partner of Bay Partners. “The broad applicability of its unique demand generation offering across industries and the company’s tremendous success and growth over the past year have created a strong base for expansion. We look forward to working with Eloqua as they bring the company and the art and science of demand generation to the next level.”
“We are true believers in Eloqua. Since our original investment a year ago, the company has solidified their leadership position in the marketing automation space,” said Bradford D. Woloson, general partner of JMI Equity. “Eloqua’s strong management team has driven impressive performance in the past year: year-on-year growth of 100%, a rapidly expanding customer base, and new offices and operations to address what we see as a significant market opportunity.”
Eloqua Conversion Suite is the industry’s leading integrated demand generation platform for businesses that expect measurable results from their marketing efforts. An on-demand solution, Eloqua Conversion Suite automates and integrates the key sales and marketing functions of email, direct mail, website analytics, campaign analytics, and sales force automation to improve the quality and quantity of sales leads, eliminate waste and accelerate the entire selling process.
About Bay Partners
Bay Partners, LLC is an early stage venture capital firm located in Silicon Valley. The firm has been building successful technology companies since 1976, funding over 300 startups. Bay leverages the operating background of its partners and its extensive network of executives and advisors to help outstanding entrepreneurs create the leaders in new high-growth market segments. Notable successes from Bay's portfolio include Brocade, Concord Communications, Digital Island, Exodus, Sonicwall, Placeware, Informatica, Web Logic (BEA) and NetScaler. Bay has over $1billion under management. For more information, please visit www.baypartners.com.
About JMI Equity, Inc.
JMI Equity, based in Baltimore and San Diego, is a private equity firm exclusively focused on investments in the software and business services industries. Founded in 1992, JMI has invested in over 70 companies throughout North America and has approximately $700 million of capital under management. JMI invests in growing businesses. The firm’s focus is on providing the first institutional capital to self-funded companies. JMI also invests in select recapitalization and management buyout financings. Representative investments include Blackbaud, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLKB), DoubleClick, Inc., Jackson Hewitt, Inc. (NYSE: JTX), Mission Critical Software, Inc. (acquired by NetIQ, Inc. Nasdaq: NTIQ), NEON Systems, Inc. (acquired by Progress Software Corporation Nasdaq: PRGS), Transaction Systems Architects, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSAI) and Unica Corporation (Nasdaq: UNCA). For more information on JMI Equity, visit www.jmiequity.com.
About Eloqua Corporation
Founded in 1999, Eloqua provides the leading integrated demand generation platform for executing, automating and measuring highly effective B2B marketing programs. Unlike stand-alone email products, Eloqua’s Conversion Suite combines email, direct mail, chat, and website analytics to drive the entire marketing process from contact to close, while making prospect interest and intent visible at every step. With market-leading technology backed by expert professional services, Eloqua automates best practices in demand generation for B2B marketers who need to produce a continuous flow of qualified leads for their sales force. Eloqua’s customers include Sybase, Seagate, Nokia, JBoss, Administaff, Nuance and many other leading BtoB marketers. Eloqua Corporation is headquartered in Toronto with offices in London and throughout the United States. For more information, please visit www.eloqua.com or call 866-327-8764.
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Media & Analyst Contact:
Jim Williams
Eloqua Corp.
781-718-1435
jim.williams@eloqua.com
