New VC investments by P6
Tellus Tech gets $13.9M in VC financing
Sep 22, 2000 10:33 AM ET
By Jeff Shuttleworth, LocalBusiness.com
FREMONT, Calif., Sept. 22 (LocalBusiness.com) -- Tellus Technology Inc., a provider of
wireless Internet access devices and services, completed a second round of funding to
the tune of $13.9 million.
Fremont, Calif.-based Tellus said the group providing the financing comprised both
venture capitalists and corporations, including Aragon Ventures, Niigata Seimitsu Co.,
and PSINet Ventures Ltd.
Founded in 1998, Tellus makes cellular digital packet data (CPDP) modems and other
dedicated wireless terminal devices for system integrators, wireless-product
distributors and service providers. CDPD technology, also known as wireless Internet
Protocol, is a method of sending and receiving secure data via cellular networks using
the Internet Protocol.
Tellus said it will use the proceeds to fund its expansion and for developing new
high-speed wireless data technologies.
Nowadays, wireless data is sent in packets at a rate of up to 19.2 kilobytes per
second. That rate is expected to take "a huge jump" to 144kbps to 384kbps by the
middle of next year, Tellus president Greg Ellis told LocalBusiness.com.
"We expect our business to go through the roof when the high-speed service begins,"
Ellis said.
Its customers and partners include value-added re-sellers such as OmniSky and
Cellgate Technologies, wireless carriers such as AT&T Wireless Services and GTE
Wireless, and distributors such as Global Wireless Data, he said.
Tellus said the advantage of CDPD is that it allows the user to connect to any Internet
Protocol-based network from any Windows application. CPDP can be used for e-mail,
Internet/intranet access, credit-card authorization, sales force automation, remote
alarm monitoring or any other application requiring remote access to a data network
or database, according to the company.
"Tellus Technology is a dynamic and innovative company in the rapidly growing
market for wireless Internet access," PSINet Ventures president John Muleta said in a
statement.
"We have real revenues and will have several million dollars in shipments this year,"
Ellis said.
Tellus has 30 employees and will soon grow to a staff of 50, he said.
localbusiness.com
PSINet, Incube8.com on cusp of $38M deal
Sep 19, 2000 02:25 PM ET
By Ray Bolger, LocalBusiness.com
UPDATED BALTIMORE and ASHBURN, Va., Sept. 20 (LocalBusiness.com) -- If things go
as planned for Incube8.com, a Baltimore-based incubator, the company will close next
month on a venture capital and services-for-equity deal with PSINet Ventures for an
investment that totals about $38 million.
This would mark the first time PSINet would be
investing in an incubator, Jack Kwicien, Incube8.com's
senior managing partner, told LocalBusiness.com.
The investment would come in two phases, the first for
$5 million, of which $750,000 would be cash, and the
rest in services-for-equity.
Detailed terms on the remaining $33 million are being hammered out, said Kwicien, a
former executive at Prudential, Crum & Forster Personal Insurance and co-founder of
Baltimore-based RewardsPlus.
Doug Baj, a spokesman for PSINet, told LocalBusiness.com that while the two firms
were in discussions, no deal has been finalized.
PSINet (Nasdaq: PSIX) created its ventures unit PSINet Ventures in February, and has
made more than 80 investments in Internet-related start-ups, topping $250 million in
cash and services-for-equity since then.
Incube8.com was founded in July 1999, and originally funded with $1.7 million from its
five managing partners, including Kwicien, Martin Irvine, Robert A. Scott II, C. Dean
Thomas and Craig A. Ziegler.
The firm lists five companies in its portfolio, including Silver Spring, Md.-based
USLaw.com; Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based SpongeLab; Baltimore-based WellPlanet;
Melville, N.Y.-based DataTreasury Corp.; and San Diego-based INNX Inc.
The incubator provides payroll, legal and consulting services, and other benefits such
as access to the research of Jupiter Communications, an Internet-market research
firm. Incube8.com also has a partnership with the Baltimore-based Web development
firm Gr8, which has adjoining office space in the Can Company building in the Canton
neighborhood.
While the bulk of PSINet's investment with Incube8.com would come in the form of
services-for-equity once the deal is closed, "for us it's the same as cash," Kwicien said,
since the firm's portfolio companies otherwise would need to pay for the Internet
technology services.
Incube8.com closed last week on a $1 million cash investment from Towson,
Md.-based Ajilon, an IT staffing and search firm, Kwicien said. Ajilon is a subsidiary of
Switzerland-based Adecco SA (NYSE: ADO), also a personnel services company.
Raymond Bolger covers the Baltimore area for LocalBusiness.com. E-mail him with
story ideas or comments.
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