01/22/2004

Cast Iron Systems, a developer of application integration appliances, has received an additional $12 million in financing led by INVESCO Private Capital, one of the oldest and most active private equity investors. In addition, Alessandro Piol, a General Partner at INVESCO, has joined the Cast Iron Systems board of directors. Cast Iron Systems’ previous investors also participated in the round, including Norwest Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital. To date, Cast Iron has secured $20.3 million in venture capital. The new capital will be used to extend sales and marketing efforts into new markets.

“What we found most interesting and promising about Cast Iron Systems is the company’s ability to attract top customers at an early stage, their experienced and savvy management team and its ability to pave the way in the application integration space. We believe their revolutionary product will change the way their customers integrate software,” said Alessandro Piol, general partner of INVESCO Private Capital.

“Business-critical data integration is a huge challenge for companies today. Cast Iron Systems’ integration solutions are filling a significant market need by radically reducing the cost and complexity of integration projects. With this latest infusion of funds, the company is properly capitalized to execute on an aggressive go to market strategy and pursue future product development,” said Promod Haque, managing partner of Norwest Venture Partners.

Cast Iron’s executive team is led by President and Chief Executive Officer, Fred Meyer. Mr. Meyer brings more than 17 years of leadership and industry experience to the Cast Iron team. Prior to joining Cast Iron, Mr. Meyer served as TIBCO’s Chief Marketing Officer for a number of years before becoming chief strategy officer, where he defined TIBCO’s long-term vision, Cast Iron notes.

“We have experienced remarkable enthusiasm for our application router in the marketplace. Our first ten customers have proven the technology works, and the benefits are real. This additional funding will allow us to expand our sales and marketing organization to capitalize on this untapped segment of the integration market,” said Fred Meyer, President and CEO of Cast Iron Systems.

Cast Iron says its board of directors “is comprised of top industry veterans and visionaries.” Alessandro Piol, General Partner, INVESCO Private Capital joins Promod Haque, (Norwest Venture Partners) Mark Kvamme (Sequoia Capital Partner), Fred Meyer (President and CEO), Nikhyl Singhal (EVP of products and founder), and George Scott (CTO and founder).

The Cast Iron Application Router is, according to the vendor, “the first integration solution to address the majority of integration problems where traditional integration solutions are overly complex and custom programming is insufficient. The product solves the most common integration problems by connecting, transforming, and routing data and events from source to target systems, with sophisticated features including guaranteed delivery of messages and failure notifications. This hardware appliance is the simplest and least expensive way to solve data integration, enabling customers to install and integrate within hours of delivery resulting in payback in as little as 4 months.”

EbizQ Vice President of Strategic Services Beth Gold-Bernstein adds, ““Cast Iron provides a unique approach to application integration. Rather than having to install and configure complex software, or a multitude of integration services, Cast Iron provides a black box that performs application routing, similar to the way a network router works. It reduces the time, cost, and IT skills required install, configure and maintain the solution.”