Strategic Investment Led by Top Tier Canadian Venture Funds; Coveo to add Benoit Hogue from Propulsion Ventures, and Serge Michaud from Solidarity Fund QFL to its Board of Directors.
Quebec City, Canada; Palo Alto, California - October 25, 2006 -Coveo Solutions Inc., a leading provider of secure search for the enterprise, today announced that it has secured $6 million through a Series A Preferred venture capital financing agreement. The investment was led by Solidarity Fund QFL and Propulsion Ventures. This funding round also included investments from Fier Succes and existing investors of the company lead by Accès Capital. Coveo announced that Benoit Hogue, Managing Partner, Propulsion Ventures, and Serge Michaud, Senior Investment Advisor, Information Technologies, Solidarity Fund QFL, have been appointed to serve on the company's board of directors.
Coveo develops superior enterprise search products that are easy to deploy, highly secure, accurate, and that integrate seamlessly into the fabric of IT environments. The company's flagship product Coveo Enterprise Search is based on leading edge Microsoft technologies and delivers unified search across all documents in the enterprise with "out-of-the-box" document level security, consumer-style ease of use, and unparalleled accuracy.
The round of funding enables Coveo to expand sales, product development, and channel operations to meet the growing demand for its product. In the past 12 months, Coveo has increased revenue by 400% and has acquired almost 300 enterprise customers including Chart Industries, Cincinnati Bell, Emerson, ESPN, Gilead Sciences, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rabobank, US Navy, and Yellow Pages Group (Canada).
Coveo is a well positioned, high growth player in an expanding market. IDC Research has indicated that the market for content access tools (search and retrieval software) reached $943M in 2005, showing a growth rate of 24%. IDCs' forecast for the search market in 2006 shows an overall growth rate of 32%.
"Coveo's impressive growth is testament to their management team and market strategy," said Benoit Hogue. "Enterprise organizations clearly understand that there is a solid, value-based alternative to traditional search applications and web-focused search tools."
"As an emerging technology vendor, Coveo is exactly the type of investment that we look for," said Jacques Bernier, Investment Senior Vice-President - Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Industrial Innovations, Solidarity Fund QFL. "Coveo has an impressive combination of innovative technology, efficient execution and extremely loyal customers."
"Our investors have validated our market position and strategy," said Laurent Simoneau, President and CEO, Coveo. "We are well positioned to execute the company's vision during this next phase of our growth, and we welcome these new investors to our team."
About Propulsion Ventures
Lead by Charles Sirois, Propulsion Ventures is a leading venture capital firm that invests in promising software companies in Canada. The founding partners of Propulsion have grown their impressive track record in managing multiple funds into a solid reputation for providing skilled support to entrepreneurs.
About Solidarity Fund QFL
With assets of $6.6 billion, the Solidarity Fund QFL is a development capital fund that through its RRSP channels the savings of Quebecers into investments in all sectors of the economy to help create and maintain jobs and contribute to Québec's economic development. The organization is a partner, either directly or through its network members, in 1,681 companies. The Fund currently has over 573,000 shareholders and has helped, on its own or with other financial partners, create, maintain and support over 116,644 jobs. For more information, visit www.fondsftq.com.
About Accès Capital
Accès Capital supports small and mid-sized businesses in Canada recognized for their excellence, vitality and growth potential, regardless of their sector of economic activity. Accès Capital makes it possible for SMEs to tap into the local and international networks of CDP Capital and the financial expertise of its management teams.
About Fier Succes
Fier Succes is a venture capital fund whose strategy is to support entrepreneurs in the realization of their business plan.
About Coveo Solutions Inc.
Based on leading edge Microsoft technologies, and winner of the 2006 Microsoft Partner Regional Winning Customer Award, Coveo Enterprise Search delivers the best value in the marketplace with out-of-the-box document level security, unparalleled accuracy, consumer style ease of use, and an implementation cycle of less than 24 hours. Whether it's to meet regulatory compliance, improve customer response, protect intellectual property or improve organizational efficiencies up to 35%, Coveo Enterprise Search enables organizations to find, understand and take action on critical information located anywhere in the enterprise. Coveo's enterprise clients include AAA, AMN Healthcare, Emerson Climate Control, ESPN, International Paper, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, NATO, NASA, AC Nielsen, US Navy, Verizon and Yellow Pages Group (Canada).
For more information, and to test drive Coveo Enterprise Search free for 30 days, please visit www.coveo.com.