Israeli start-up Prolify has raised $4 million from Gemini Israel Funds and Pitango Venture Capital.
Prolify was founded eighteen months ago by experienced entrepreneurs Alon Hochberg and Gad Cohen, whose have proven and impressive records of accomplishment. Hochberg managed Modus, sold to Ness Technologies (Nasdaq: NSTC), and founded Neteos, while Cohen was VP sales and marketing at Zend Technologies, and a senior executive at Business Layers and other companies.
Eight months ago, Dr. Giora Yaron joined them as an entrepreneur-partner, together with Barak Ben-Avinoam. Yaron, one of Israel’s most active entrepreneurs, has founded five companies, including P-Cube, sold to Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) six months ago for $200 million, and Pentacom, sold to Cisco in 2000 for $118 million.
Prolify is developing software for large enterprises, mostly for coordinating between an enterprise’s various IT systems, preventing malfunctions and problems in work processes, and cutting enterprises’ IT expenses.
Hochberg says that they began working on the idea 18 months ago, and the proceeds from the financing round should bring the company to a point at which it can launch its product onto the market.
Hochberg adds that as part of their initial examination, they approached large financial and communications enterprises, and discovered a great demand for their idea. Although the company is still in its earliest phases, it has already signed cooperation agreements with IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Mercury Interactive Corporation (Nasdaq: MERQ).
”Globes”: How can a start-up that still has no product sign agreements with giant companies?
Hochberg: ”Our software is designed to be an additional module in the existing systems, and to improve the performance of the systems and the enterprise, while cutting costs. Our module will collect data from personal and enterprise systems and use them to sketch a complete and coherent picture. It will feed and compare the data, and can warn about malfunctions and problems in work processes, long before they become critical. For example, Mercury Interactive has a range of products for IT management, and we’ll give them the data that their systems couldn’t get before.”
Hochberg adds that Prolify is already negotiating with other major enterprises, which have already expressed interest in carrying out initial tests on their system.
When will you reach the market?
”We’ll begin beta testing within six months, and we’ll have a product by the end of this year. We already have installation orders.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Tuesday, February 15, 2005