SOURCE: Awarepoint Corporation

November 25, 2008 07:00 ET

Awarepoint Corporation Closes $13.3 M Series D Financing Round

Cardinal Partners Leads Investment and Is Joined by Venrock in Expansion Capital for Principal Provider of Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS)

SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire - November 25, 2008) - Awarepoint Corporation, a principal provider of real-time location systems (RTLSs), today announced it has raised $13.3 million in a Series D round of venture capital financing led by Cardinal Partners and joined by Venrock and existing investor Avalon Ventures. Funds will be used as expansion to take advantage of the rapid demand for RTLS in both domestic and international markets and to fuel Awarepoint's momentous growth.

The Awarepoint Solution offers location, status and movement visibility of both equipment and people, allowing for real-time remote monitoring of critical resources. Awarepoint's RTLS Active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) platform includes a patented plug-in sensor mesh network, application software, firmware, connectivity bridges, and multipurpose resource tags. Awarepoint's solutions collect raw sensor data and transform that data into high-value positioning, status and history information that is utilized to add actionable awareness to a variety of healthcare and business applications. Awarepoint is defining the emerging RTLS marketplace by successfully addressing the factors critical to success: enterprise-wide coverage, location accuracy, minimally invasive installs, interoperability and a low risk business model.

"In today's uncertain economic environment, only the most extraordinary growth companies will be financed, and Awarepoint is extraordinary. The company has shown incredible growth in the last 18 months, and has the right technology, intellectual property and product focus to succeed," said Brandon Hull, managing partner at lead investor Cardinal Partners. "Awarepoint is an ideal match with Cardinal Partners' stated goal of funding innovative technology/service companies which 'automate the broken processes of healthcare.'"

Venrock joins Cardinal Partners in this financing round. "Awarepoint addresses a difficult and expensive challenge that healthcare institutions face every day," said Brian Ascher, general partner at Venrock. "We are excited about the company's potential for growth and are looking forward to working alongside the team to help drive its success."

While many companies are struggling today, Awarepoint's hard dollar return on investment and hospital-friendly business model is actually fueling tremendous growth. Awarepoint is able to offer a hard dollar return on investment in areas hospitals struggle with daily -- lost, stolen and misplaced equipment, excessive equipment rentals, and capital budget redundancies. Further, Awarepoint's interoperability, enterprise-wide coverage, location accuracy and minimally invasive installs allow hospitals to be ready to support more complex RTLS opportunities, including workflow and business applications that involve patient and staff tracking, device association and more.

"For hospital administrators, there's little worse than spending precious capital resources on equipment they may not even need. With actionable information regarding the location and status of the equipment they already own, hospitals are able to reallocate existing capital budget dollars, or simply reduce their capital equipment and rental expenses. Today's challenging economic times make this more important than ever before," said Jason Howe, CEO at Awarepoint.

"In view of the financial turmoil facing healthcare markets today, it is especially rewarding to be able to partner with tier one investors like Cardinal Partners and Venrock that truly understand the implications technology can have on the bottom line. These firms not only add significant expansion capital to Awarepoint, just as importantly, they add true strategic vision and alliances that will undoubtedly help us build an even stronger company. In addition, it's very validating to have our existing investor, Avalon Ventures, participate fully in this round."

As a result of this financing round, Brandon Hull, managing partner at Cardinal Partners, and Brian Ascher, general partner at Venrock, will join Awarepoint's board of directors. The board also includes Jason Howe, CEO at Awarepoint; Nico Nierenberg, Chairman of the Board and Chief Architect, Actuate; Stephen L. Tomlin, Managing Member, Avalon Ventures; and Harold M. Koenig, M.D., Chairman and President, The Annapolis Center for Science Based Public Policy, retired Surgeon General of the Navy and Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery with the permanent rank of Vice Admiral.

About Awarepoint

Awarepoint's Active RFID technologies and real-time location systems (RTLSs) include its real-time awareness platform, firmware, RFID tags, sensors, and bridges. Awarepoint's technologies collect raw sensor data and transform that data into high-value positioning information that can be used to add location awareness to a variety of healthcare, manufacturing, security and other applications. Requiring no hard wiring, Awarepoint's "plug and track" network is a fully managed service, including hardware, software, remote monitoring and maintenance. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California and serves hospitals across the United States through a national sales and operations workforce. Track us down at www.awarepoint.com

About Cardinal Partners

Since 1996, Cardinal Partners has been one of the leading venture capital partnerships focused exclusively on healthcare investing. Cardinal is committed to the belief that innovation and excellence in healthcare will simultaneously improve the lives of millions, while also rewarding investors with extraordinary returns. As veteran company-builders, Cardinal principals partner with entrepreneurs, scientists, clinicians, engineers and inventors in the challenging task of growing great companies from great ideas. Over the course of their careers, the Cardinal Partners team has invested in over one hundred growth companies. Since 1997 alone, companies funded by Cardinal have a cumulative market valuation exceeding $6 Billion. Cardinal's investors include university endowments, foundations, pension funds, banks, and insurance companies. Cardinal currently manages funds totaling $330 Million. For more information, visit www.cardinalpartners.com

About Venrock

Venrock is a premier venture capital firm with offices in Palo Alto, New York, Cambridge, MA, and Israel. Originally established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, Venrock continues a seven-decade tradition of partnering with entrepreneurs to establish successful, enduring companies. Having invested $2.2 billion in 417 companies resulting in 124 IPOs over the past 39 years, Venrock's investment returns place it among the top tier venture capital firms that have achieved consistently superior performance. With a primary focus on technology, healthcare, and energy, portfolio companies have included Adify, Adnexus Therapeutics, Apple Computer, Centocor, Check Point Software, DoubleClick, Gilead Sciences, Idec Pharmaceuticals, Illumina, Intel, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Sirna Therapeutics, StrataCom, and Vontu. For more information, please visit Venrock's website at www.venrock.com

About Avalon Ventures

Avalon Ventures is a San Diego-based venture capital fund focusing on seed and early stage companies in life sciences, wireless communications and Web 3.0 digital media, primarily in California and the Northeast. The Company's current Fund, Avalon VIII, L.P. is $150 million. Avalon Ventures is one of the longest-standing venture capital firms in San Diego, investing in life sciences and information technology opportunities locally and around the country since 1983 through eight Avalon Ventures funds. The collective market capitalization of Avalon Ventures portfolio companies (most founded by Avalon partners) currently exceeds $11 billion. For more information, visit www.avalonvi.com