Cornice a magnet for venture funds
By Aldo Svaldi
Denver Post Business Writer
Cornice Inc. of Longmont managed to corner a lion's share of venture capital flowing to Colorado companies in the first quarter.
"We have had a lot of people who want to invest in us, and we have gotten to write our own terms," said Melissa Kutrubes, Cornice spokeswoman.
The company raised $51 million during the quarter, or 61 percent of the $83.5 million that venture capitalists invested among 15 companies in Colorado, according to the MoneyTree Survey. The survey was released Monday by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association.
Cornice makes storage devices for consumer electronic products, primarily MP3 players, using technology that costs less than hard-drive systems.
The company plans to use the new capital to beef up its engineering and sales force and grow its employment from 105 to 150 by year-end, Kutrubes said.
VantagePoint Venture Partners, CIBC Capital Partners, and Nokia Venture Partners returned for another round of funding, along with some new investors, Kutrubes said.
Overall, the volume of venture funding in the state fell 43 percent from the first quarter of 2003, according to the MoneyTree Survey.
An absence of funding to energy and industrial firms in Colorado, the target of $101.4 million last year in venture funding, explains some of the decline, said Matt Kosmicki, a technology partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Denver.
Nationally, venture funding during the first quarter totaled $4.6 billion, up from $4.2 billion in first quarter 2003, according to the MoneyTree Survey.
Besides Cornice, some of the other Colorado companies receiving venture funds during the quarter include:
$8.7 million to InPhase Technologies Inc., a Longmont maker of holographic storage technology.
$6 million to Indicative Software, a Fort Collins provider of business software.
$6 million to Olive Software, a Denver developer of content management software for publishers and libraries.
$4 million to Efficas Inc., a Longmont biotech firm.
$2.7 million to Rapid Communications LLC, a Parker-based cable-television provider.
$1.25 million to Oxlo Systems Inc., a Louisville developer of business software.
$1 million to HomeSphere Inc., a Golden firm that makes software for the homebuilding industry.
