AITV, a US-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage and medium-growth software companies, has made a follow-on investment in LiveAction's recent USD36 million Series B financing, alongside Insight Venture Partners and Cisco Investments.
As part of the investment, founding general partner, Bill Malloy, joins the LiveAction board as an observer, alongside already presiding board member and founding general partner, Brian Nugent. The funding proceeds will allow LiveAction to focus on expanding operations globally and accelerate feature product development, further establishing the company as the visibility software standard for the Forbes Global 2000.
"Our follow-on capital into LiveAction not only reaffirms our commitment to the software defined network, but also to the leadership of Darren Kimura and the team he's assembled," stated founding general partner at AITV, Bill Malloy. "Insight Venture Partners have helped build successful infrastructure software companies including SolarWinds, Veeam, and Quest Software, and we are looking forward to accelerating our growth via this partnership," says Michael Triplett of Insight Ventures.
Initially developed to aid the US Department of Defense in the operation of its networks, LiveAction features an innovative visual display, real-time big data analytics for decision-making and deep integration with routers and switches for unparalleled network control.
"In 2014, we completed our Series A round, led by AITV and Cisco, and invested those proceeds to build a powerful visibility platform used by many of the biggest companies in energy, finance, retail and healthcare. Closing our Series B financing enables us to globalise LiveAction," said Darren T. Kimura, CEO and chairman of LiveAction.
"The underlying story (the follow-on capital investment from Cisco) is really a microcosm for what's happening within the corporate venture capital market. With the speed at which disruption now occurs, large corporates are embracing innovation like never before. There's been a shift towards an offence-is-the-best-defence approach when it comes to avoiding marginalisation while simultaneously driving growth," says Bill Malloy.
In fact the data supports the claim of a robust and active corporate venture capital market. Despite ending on a weak note, 2015 marked new highs for CVC, with investors participating in USD28.4B of funding across 1301 deals, beating 2014's record CVC numbers, according to venture capital research shop, CB Insights.
