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Visto Corporation Secures Funding To Solidify Lead in Wireless Messaging Market
More Than $30 Million in Funding will Support Aggressive Product Development and Acquisition Strategy
(Redwood Shores, CALIF., May 13, 2003) – Visto Corporation (www.visto.com), the leading provider of personal and corporate mobile access solutions that are easy to install, administer and use, today announced that it has secured $30.3 million in private equity financing. Already a top tier provider of wireless messaging solutions among enterprises and wireless operators, Visto will use the financing in part to launch an aggressive strategy aimed at accelerating product development, expanding sales distribution and monetizing patented intellectual property. The company also expects to acquire companies that complement the Visto business strategy.
The new funding round was co-led by two new prominent investors, Oak Investment Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Blueprint Ventures, another new investor, and previous investors, including Rustic Canyon Group and Allegis Capital, invested the remainder of the funds.
“We looked at more than 30 companies in the wireless messaging market prior to selecting Visto,” said Bandel Carano, general partner, Oak Investment Partners. “Visto is perfectly positioned with the capital, management, technology, customer wins and patented intellectual property to consolidate the emerging global market for wireless messaging.”
“Visto’s management team showed amazing focus, persistence and determination, all of which played an integral part in why DFJ chose to invest with this company,” said John Fisher, managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
Visto’s ability to secure funding in this investment climate suggests that market watchers are recognizing the company’s leadership position, and investors are maintaining positive assessments as to the future of wireless messaging. This up tick in investment is an indication that renewed optimism is displacing some of the industry hype and cynicism of the recent past.
“Good companies pursuing significant market opportunities, with proven technology and management teams that execute, still get funded,” said Brian Bogosian, chairman, president and CEO of Visto. “Size matters. The level of this funding, in this environment, clearly reinforces our position as the market leader in mobile access solutions.”
During 2002, Visto introduced MessageXpress, the first Visto-branded desktop wireless messaging solution to offer secure access to email for the mobile professional. Visto also upgraded its Enterprise Server Edition, providing both multiple server and domain support to provide greater flexibility for enterprise IT systems, while reducing administration and overhead for IT professionals. In addition to new solutions, Visto also announced partnerships with Bell Mobility, Handspring, Microsoft, Motorola, Palm, Symbian, as well as new contracts with Fortune 500 customers in manufacturing, health care, consumer goods, and professional services.
About Allegis Capital
Allegis Capital LLC, an innovator in seed and early-stage venture
financing in Silicon Valley, is focused on building unique partnerships
between entrepreneurs and 32 global corporations. For further information
about Allegis Capital's corporate limited partners and portfolio
companies, visit their website at www.allegiscapital.com.
About BluePrint Ventures
Blueprint Ventures is a San Francisco Bay Area-based early-stage
venture capital firm focused exclusively on emerging communications
companies delivering next-generation Internet infrastructure components,
systems, services and communications software. For more information,
visit www.blueprintventures.com.
About Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a leading information technology venture
capital firm. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, Draper
Fisher Jurvetson has developed a large network of highly successful
information technology portfolio companies. For more information
about Draper Fisher Jurvetson see www.dfj.com.
About Oak Investment Partners
Oak Investment Partners was founded in 1978 and has raised nine
venture capital partnerships with a total of $4.0 billion in committed
capital. Oak has sponsored over 300 companies with aggregate annual
revenues in excess of $60 billion. For more information, visit www.oakvc.com.
About Rustic Canyon Group
Rustic Canyon Ventures is a $550 million venture capital fund investing
in the new leaders of American business. Originally formed in 1999
as TMCT Ventures, Rustic Canyon Ventures is one of the largest venture
capital funds in Southern California. For more information about
Rustic Canyon Ventures, visit www.rusticcanyon.com.
Established in 1996, Visto is the leading provider of wireless messaging solutions to mobile operators for personal and corporate use. Visto’s technology provides secure access to the most widely used corporate applications over any network and on a broad array of devices, and supports both browser-based as well as offline-capable devices. Visto Mobile Access Solution, Server Edition, provides departmental and enterprise access to corporate email. Visto MessageXpress provides individual access to corporate, Internet and POP3 email. Both Server Edition and MessageXpress are well suited to the “converged” wireless PDAs/phones using Palm OS, Pocket PC, SmartPhone, J2ME and Symbian platforms. Visto’s WirelessInbox, provides real time access to corporate and personal email via direct access through desktop computers via any wireless device’s browser and is well suited to wireless phones with only WAP browser capability. Leveraging a portfolio of eight granted patents in synchronization, access and security technologies, Visto’s platform is a proven, scalable solution that has supported more than 2.7 million users. Visto’s solutions are available through wireless operators worldwide, including AT&T Wireless, Bell Mobility, KPN, Manitoba Telecom Services, Nextel Communications, Inc., Rogers AT&T Wireless, SaskTel Mobility, SmarTone and TELUS Mobility. http://www.visto.com