Monday, January 21, 2008

The Pitch

Lexalytics Inc. looks for grwoth funds

Headquarters: Amherst

Employees: 10

Founded: 2003

Web: www.lexalytics.com

E-mail: jeff.catlin@lexalytics.com

Phone: 413-253-0202 x101

The Pitch: Lexalytics is seeking $3 million to $5 million in equity investment

Pitching the technology

Lexalytics makes text analytics software. The company said its "salience engine" can analyze documents, paragraphs or summaries to determine the tone or sentiment it contains about a particular subject. For instance, a business could use Lexalytics's product to identify whether content related to its product on social media websites is positive or negative. The technology is also designed to scan text to identify people, places and products and automatically generate text summaries.

Pitching the people

Who are the company's founders? Jeffrey Catlin, formerly of Sovereign Hill Software Inc., Thomson Financial and Pleasant Street Technologies Inc; and Mike Marshall, formerly of Lightspeed Software Inc. and Dataware Technologies Inc.

Who is on the management team? Jeffrey Catlin, CEO; Mike Marshall, CTO; James Rector, vice president of sales; Tim Mohler, vice president of services; Christine Sierra, vice president of marketing and public relations.

Have executives been involved in a cashout prior to this venture? Jeffrey Catlin founded PleasantStreet Technologies and sold it to Chiliad Publishing in 2002.

Who is on the board of advisers? Lexalytics is in the process of assembling its board.

Pitching the business

How much money is being sought? Lexalytics is seeking $3 million to $5 million, which it said will be used to accelerate growth in its target markets of text analytics and social media monitoring.

What partnerships or affiliations are already in place? Lexalytics said it has partnerships with the U.S. Department of State, Cisco Systems Inc., BurrellesLuce, FAST Search & Transfer ASA, NorthernLight Group LLC, Siderean Software Inc., and Cymfony Inc.

List any federal or state grants, contracts or awards received: None.

What's the market size being pursued? The initial market Lexalytics is targeting is about $300 million, officials say.

Who are the likely competitors, direct or indirect? Radian6, Biz360 Inc. and Vocus Inc.

Is the company profitable? Lexalytics is profitable, reporting 2007 revenue of $1.5 million.