Zmags Raises $4.2M from OpenView Venture
Zmags, a leading provider of digital publishing software, today announced it has raised $4.2 million in Series B funding from OpenView Venture Partners, bringing the total investment in the company to $7 million. Zmags plans to use the capital to expand the company’s sales and marketing efforts in the U.S. and accelerate research and development.
“We see massive potential for the Zmags platform as traditional media publishers begin to look for ways to leverage online, rich media interactive marketing,” said Scott Maxwell, Founding Partner of OpenView Venture Partners. “The Zmags team has done a tremendous job bringing the solution to market and achieving the leading position in Europe for this technology. OpenView will help the company secure a similar leading position in the U.S.”
Zmags’ web-based publishing platform allows users to easily create interactive digital magazines, catalogues, and books. With Zmags Publicator, users can turn static PDF documents into dynamic, rich media presentations with just a few clicks of a mouse. Zmags currently has 1200 customers in over 20 countries, including Volkswagen, Microsoft, IKEA, and Microsoft.
The Danish division of 3M started using Zmags last year to create and present its online product catalogues to their customers. “At the time we chose our e-publishing solution, the criteria were that publications should be easy to handle for the reader, that search was simple, and that we did not have to change the basic flow of how we produced catalogues or price lists,” said Claud Alvdahl Hansen, Senior Business System Developer at 3M Denmark. “Zmags’ solution met all of these criteria.”
In January 2008, Zmags raised $2.6 million in a first round of funding from NorthCap Partners. “When we invested in Zmags, our plan was to bring on a U.S. VC in about a year,” said Jesper Scharling Sorensen, a Partner for NorthCap. “Having achieved that in four months is a testament to the success and ambition of Zmags’ management team. This investment enables the organizational development that will be necessary to establish Zmags as the leading provider of online publishing solutions worldwide.”
“We have a very aggressive sales and marketing strategy,” said Jens Karstoft, CEO of Zmags. “We have more than tripled our revenue each year since we founded the company in 2005, and with continued support from our investors, we are well-suited to continue growing at this rate.”
About Zmags
Zmags is a leading provider of digital publishing software that enables customers to transform their static PDF files into dynamic and beautiful web presentations in seconds. The company has more than 1200 customers in over 30 countries, including Microsoft, Ikea, General Motors and 3M. With Zmags’ Publicator, customers can embed rich media into their publications, track and analyze reader behaviour, and significantly reduce publishing costs. Zmags’ uses 15 data centers around the world to ensure an optimal user experience. To learn more, please visit www.zmags.com
OpenView Venture Partners
OpenView Venture Partners is an expansion stage venture capital fund, with a focus on highgrowth software, internet, and technology-enabled companies. Much of the team’s success has been driven by its active role in providing its portfolio companies with strategic value-add services and highly practical operating expertise. OpenView Venture Partners is based in Boston, MA, and invests globally.
Web-site: openviewpartners.com
About NorthCap Partners
NorthCap Partners is a Copenhagen-headquartered venture capital firm that has a strong track record of developing businesses in IT. NorthCap Partners was formed in 2007 in a merger between IVS A/S and Bankinvest IT Venture, and today is part of the BankInvest Group, the largest venture capital investor in Scandinavia.
Web-site: www.northcappartners.com