TERMINALFOUR, a developer of web content management software, has secured €1.6 million of equity finance to fund its expansion into US, British and European markets.
The Dublin company, which employs 35 people, also plans to create 15 new jobs, mostly in Ireland, over the next 18 months. The new roles will primarily be in sales, pre-sales and customer support.
The investment was led by the Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund, managed by NCB Ventures. Some funding came from the AIB seed capital fund, managed by the Dublin Business Innovation Centre, in addition to grant aid from Enterprise Ireland.
“We started to sell in the US around 18 months ago and we realised to do this quickly, we needed to get funding on board,” said TerminalFour chief executive Piero Tintori.
The company has a US office outside Boston and serves the British market from Slough.
Export sales will be an important part of the company’s future, added Mr Tintori.
“If you look at our sales pipeline figures, they used to be 70 per cent Irish and 30 per cent international. At the moment it’s swung completely the other way.”
Web-content management is not a new market but there is still plenty of untapped potential, he added. “It looks like everybody has one but they don’t, so in the short term there’s definitely a lot of scope for growing organically without a merger or acquisition.”
In November, the company released the latest version of its Site Manager software and Mr Tintori said this would give TerminalFour a lead on its competitors.
“The big thing we’ve learned . . . is you can’t underestimate how good investing in R&D will be, especially in a downturn. It’s very difficult to compete if your product is the same as everybody else’s.”
As part of the funding deal, NCB Ventures partner Leo Hamill has been given a position on the board of TerminalFour. Mr Tintori admitted he had previously been sceptical of venture capital firms but said NCB Ventures’ advice had been valuable.
