CRM (customer relationship management), risk management and business intelligence firm, Norkom Technologies, has finalised a fund raising round worth €3.1m from existing shareholders, such as Trinity Venture Capital.
The company has also revealed that it has recently made significant business deals with five companies in the US and Europe worth over €5m.
The deals include a new seven figure contract in the US with ING Direct, the retail banking subsidiary of ING Group, for its Alchemist enterprise-wide analytical application that predicts and analyses customer and market behaviour. ING is one of the largest financial services firms in the world, with banking and insurance assets exceeding US$800m.
Since establishing in 1998, Norkom has raised in excess of €35m in venture capital funding as well as investment from figures like Denis O’Brien and Fran Rooney and was regarded as one of Ireland’s brightest tech stars. However, since then, the company has had to make successive staffing cutbacks from a high of close to 200 people to its present workforce of 60 people.
At one point the company was tipped as an initial public offering (IPO) contender and was valued at close to €220m.
Despite this, CEO Paul Kerley said that the latest funding represents the continued confidence of investors in the potential of Norkom. He said: “The recent contract signings with existing and new clients are an added boost and will provide us with sufficient working capital to carry us through until the end of 2004 and well beyond.”
By John Kennedy
