Centric Software benefits from advent of lifecycle management tech

Chris Groves, president and CEO of Centric Software, said the first round was closed "between October 2004 and April 2005 in three tranches," with $4 million to $5 million of the proceeds going to pay off debt. He added that the current round came at an increase in valuation to that of the Series A.

The Series A funds were raised to redirect the company's focus into the enterprise space and expand the company's technology both through internal development and through acquisition. Centric has used that capital to purchase two companies: Framework Technologies in December 2004, and Product Sight Corp. in November 2005, both for undisclosed amounts.

A developer of Open PLM, or product lifecycle management, software, Centric's technology is designed to accelerate product and process innovation by enabling users throughout a company to see the whole picture for a product in development. The company's "Product Intelligence" platform allows everyone involved in the line planning, product design, sourcing and supply chain processes to have secure access to the most up-to-date view of their products and product lines.

The platform's data aggregation functionality allows all information about the product -- visual, data-based, text-based, etc. -- to be collected in a repository that can be accessed by any user. Centric targets fast-moving consumer industries like apparel, where sharing of design and fashion insights quickly among a range of people is vital. Framework Technologies was a privately held developer of project collaboration and portfolio management technology, whose software keyed in on the product life cycle from the idea to market introduction.

Product Sight made software that performed intelligent searches of structured or unstructured and unmanaged data. Groves said the company is not proactively seeking more acquisitions with its new capital, but is not ruling out more purchases either.

The company's 2004 change in direction has been paying off in terms of revenue growth, which has been growing at "more than 50% year-over-year," Groves said.

"Apparel and other fast-moving consumer goods companies are under intense pressure today to bring more products to market faster to meet short market window opportunities," said Groves. "We bring unique technologies that enable [our clients] to accelerate their going-to-market."

Corporate users of the software include Artsana Group, Best Buy Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Linens-n-Things Inc., Moen Inc., Timex Corp. and United Stationers Inc. The proceeds will be used to expand its product development efforts as well as for sales and marketing with a "focus on industries with the broadest product lines and shortest life cycles," Groves said.

"They would be people that tend to be driven by fashion such as clothing, consumer electronics and private label servicing," he added. "We're focusing on the fastest of the fast."

With 50 employees, and plans to expand to 100 by year's end, Centric's sales are primarily in the U.S. and Europe, and it expects to eventually branch out into the Asia-Pacific region as well.

The company was originally founded in 1989 as Coryphaeus Software, a maker of prototyping and visualization software that included a supply-chain management component. Its initial technology was designed to allow users to easily model, assemble, visualize and simulate 3-D synthetic environments.

Operating as Coryphaeus, the company received roughly $46 million in financing from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Volpe, Welty & Co., Kline, Hawkes & Co., ABS Ventures, BancBoston Ventures, Boston Capital Ventures, Seacoast Capital Partners and financier Arthur Rock.