Monday, April 15, 2002

Finance

funding total of $36M

By Jeff Miller

Three privately held New England software and services companies have announced they raised a total of $36.6 million in recent venture capital financing.

For two of those companies, the new capital represented their first institutional round of funding, though neither is a typical software startup.

170 Systems Inc. in Cambridge, for example, is a three-year-old business-process software company that had bootstrapped itself before it took $14 million from Polaris Venture Partners in its recent A round.

Lexington-based Imprivata Inc., on the other hand, is developing a software platform for authentication security, working off of a business plan originally developed by Polaroid Corp.

Both of the company's founders - Phil Scarfo and David Ting - have previously worked for Polaroid. Scarfo, who heads business development for Imprivata, was formerly Polaroid's vice president of biometrics. Ting, who developed technology for Polaroid as a contractor, is Imprivata's chief technology officer.

Imprivata's platform is designed to allow companies to easily add different types of authentication security systems, from password protection to fingerprint identification, into their corporate networks.

Imprivata closed on a $13.5 million A round, co-led by Polaris Venture Partners, Highland Capital and General Catalyst.

Patrick Morley, formerly North American vice president for Macromedia, has been named Imprivata's chief executive officer.

Not all the deals were A rounds. Home-Link Services Inc. in Shelton, Conn., closed on a $9.1 million in its third round of funding.

Canaan Partners and J.H. Whitney & Co. led the financing.

Home-Link has developed software, a Web site and a 100-seat call center to create a network of real estate brokers and moving services companies aimed at homeowners who are relocating.