Webvanta Financing Closed

Posted 13 December 2008

Today we reached an important milestone in the short history of Webvanta—we closed the next phase of our financing. We now have the capital we need to take our platform to the next level.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise to anyone who has picked up a newspaper in the last three months that it’s been an incredibly challenging time to raise capital. We began our active fundraising with a presentation at the North Bay Angels on September 18, a day when a Wall Street Journal headline read, Worst financial crisis since ‘30s, with no end in sight. And things got worse, much worse, from there.

The freezing of credit markets, followed by the stock market collapse and the widespread economic malaise, made investors of all stripes extremely risk-averse. This week’s treasure-bill interest rate of 0% is the latest indication of the conservatism that pervades today’s investment climate. Many people are focused not on getting a return on their investments, but on simply preserving their capital.

Despite all this, we kept moving forward, refocusing on a smaller convertible debt financing instead of a Series A offering. We worked closely with several members of the North Bay Angels to craft terms that addressed their concerns about investing in these challenging times.

Today we closed the financing. I’m honored by the trust that our investors have placed in us. It is so easy these days to simply say “no” to any investment proposition. I am grateful to the intrepid souls who chose to support our efforts and say “yes.”

I’m thrilled to be able to put a renewed focus on moving the business forward; raising capital is always a big distraction, and in this climate, it was a huge distraction. Although we hope to raise additional capital in the future, we’ve structured the business in a way that it is not dependent on future capital infusions to survive.

The opportunity in front of us is tremendous: no matter what happens to the economy, the web will continue to be a crucial tool for businesses and organizations of all kinds, and we offer them a lower-cost way to gain more benefit from it. We believe that the way most web sites are built is overdue for a massive shift to software as a service, and we have a powerful platform to enable this shift.