Press Releases in 2000
CDC Solutions
Next generation publishing software £8m thrid round funding
October 2000
ICON Corporate Finance Secure £8m from Leading Technology Investors for software company CDC Solutions.
CDC Solutions, which provides next generation software for the electronic publishing market, has secured a third funding round of £8 million equity investment from leading technology investors 3i and Quester.
3i and Quester were part of a syndicate of venture capitalists who invested £2 million in CDC only 11 months ago in November 1999, bringing the total amount of funding received by the company to £11 million.
CDC, which has offices in the UK and US, designs, develops and sells next generation publishing software products which satisfy the publishing demands of some of the global leaders in the pharmaceutical, finance, insurance, utilities, automotive and media industries.
The company is currently enjoying a period of unprecedented growth both in terms of revenues, clients and staff. With a growing number of senior appointments both in the US and the UK and its third successive quarter of increased revenues, CDC Solutions is embarking on a worldwide programme of expansion and vertical market penetration. The new investment of £8 million will allow them to develop new software products and ramp up the sales and marketing teams.
Co-founder and CEO of the business Dave Cornwell said: "CDC is at the forefront of the new electronic publishing revolution. The ever-increasing demand for customised professional documents through the Internet provides huge opportunities for us. The applications for our software are widespread; from preparing and submitting new drug applications to producing corporate documentation and manuals."
CDC's impressive client list includes world leading healthcare giant SmithKline Beecham, divisions of which use the software publishing solution to compile, collate, customise and electronically publish their business and regulatory compliance information from their internal systems.
As the Life sciences market becomes ever more competitive, pharmaceutical and other regulated companies in the sector are under ever increasing pressure to reduce the time taken to publish their drug marketing applications (submissions).
CDC's software provides these companies with a publishing solution, which enables them to benefit from huge reductions in administration, eliminating costly and time-consuming manual indexing, pagination, and cross-referencing time that it takes to compile and publish documentation from disparate databases, whilst ensuring a smooth transition from paper to electronic based submissions.
The investment from 3i's Technology Group and Quester is clear evidence of the confidence in CDC's product range and positioning in the market place. The explosive growth of web publishing, where CDC offers a solution for customised documents on demand, provides further evidence of CDC's growth potential.
Alan Bristow of ICON Corporate Finance, who advised
CDC on the fundraising, commented:
"CDC's Internet enabling technology is just the
type of investment opportunity that attracts the top
VCs to the table. The company is extremely well positioned
to capitalise on the explosion in web based publishing
and this further investment round reflects the confidence
in the company. CDC has built an enviable reputation
for high quality advanced technology and we are delighted
to have been involved in the deal."
Mike Reid of 3i said:
"This is a very exciting global investment for
3i. By taking a stake in this emerging technology we
are ensuring that 3i are at the forefront of Internet
enabling technology development"
Jeremy Milne from Quester added:
"Document publishing online is a hot area in the
electronic age. CDC Solutions has built an enviable
reputation in the exacting environment of pharmaceutical
regulatory submissions and its core technological skills
of publishing "on the fly" from dynamic databases
using current PDF technologies will make CDC Solutions
a very valuable enterprise in the future."
Burges Salmon in Bristol provided legal advice for CDC, whilst corporate solicitor Dee Sian of law firm Osborne Clark OWA advised 3i.
