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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Nomadix Gets $9 Million In Latest Round of Funding

Nomadix Gets $9 Million In Latest Round of Funding By SHELLY GARCIA Senior Reporter Despite the tough investment climate and the slowdown in Internet technology spending, one local software developer has raised $9 million of a $12 million financing round from both new and existing investors in its fourth funding round. Nomadix, a Westlake Village-based company that develops “plug and play” software solutions that allow mobile users to connect with their service providers in any location, expects the round to be its last before reaching profitability. The company said it will use the financing to increase its business development and sales and marketing efforts, and boost revenues so that the company can become self-sustaining. “There are some investments in additional sales talent we’d like to bring in,” said CFO Eric J. Larson. “There are marketing programs Pat (Parker, CEO) likes to say we are the best unknown company in Southern California and we’d like to change that.” Four-year-old Nomadix was founded with a proprietary technology that connects end users to their home-office, high-speed communications networks, regardless of whether they are using personal digital assistants, computers or laptops and without the need to reconfigure the equipment, essentially with the push of a button. That means, for instance, a business executive without any technical savvy can sit in a hotel room hundreds of miles from the home office and use the same high-speed Internet provider with which the company already has an account to send and receive e-mail or access the Internet or the corporate network. The technology not only provides more flexibility for travelers, it can simplify billing and accounting paperwork and provide greater security for communications. But getting the technology to the end users who would most appreciate its benefits has proven somewhat elusive. Nomadix initially sought to sell its technology directly to the telecom companies that provide Internet service and to computer makers who would add a piece of hardware containing the function to their equipment. With the appointment of its current CEO, Patrick Parker, about a year ago, the company has shifted its marketing efforts to component manufacturers servicing the telecom and computer industries, where distribution channels are already in place for the systems Nomadix designs. The company recently signed a licensing agreement with Agere Systems, a wireless access point vendor, and plans are underway to further these types of marketing efforts. “We are now starting to really build relationships with leading vendors who are selling equipment to (these providers),” Larson said. Larson would not release specific sales data. He said that since it began shipments of its Network Service Engines two years ago, Nomadix has shipped over 2,000 units and the company’s workforce has increased in the past six months from 45 to 55 employees. Those results helped to retain three investor groups who participated in previous rounds AvTech Ventures in Del Mar, Intel Communications Fund and L.A.-based Smart Technology Ventures along with a new source of capital for Nomadix, Keystone Venture Capital in Philadelphia. “I can tell a pretty exciting story in that we have revenue. We have grown for three consecutive quarters, we have decreased expenses, have cash in the bank and are solving an important problem that is begin magnified as the world becomes more mobile,” Larson said. While valuations for tech companies have generally decreased precipitously since the heyday of the Nasdaq market a year ago, Larson said those trends are less important to companies like Nomadix. “Getting overly concerned about the valuation as of today should not be a priority,” he said. “The issue is, do you have a fund-able business, which the answer (for us) was yes. “In today’s climate, to get a nice, clean deal with new investors stepping up is an outstanding accomplishment.”

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