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January 13th, 2005
Vision Objects Raises € 2 Million with combined investment from XAnge Capital and XAnge Private Equity
Nantes, January 13th, 2005 – Vision Objects, the creator of software solutions specializing in handwriting recognition for professional mobile applications and one of the major players in the market, has just closed a round of financing of €2 million conducted jointly by XAnge Capital and XAnge Private Equity on behalf of its funds.
XAnge Capital and XAnge Private Equity have joined with Business Angels, who have been investing in the company since 2000, and ANVAR, the company's long-standing partner, which stepped-in in 2002 with a €0.4 million warrant investment.
Vision Objects is a French software company pioneering multi-lingual handwriting recognition software (supporting more than 10 European and Asian languages) for digital pens, PDAs, Tablet PCs, Graphic Tablets, and cell phones. The company's main product, MyScript, is a software solution which supports all major operating systems (Windows, Linux, Palm OS, and Symbian, etc.).
Vision Objects supplies technologies for the automation of manual data entry, resulting in significant productivity gains for industry, service sectors and administrations. The company covers 4 market segments:
- Form Processing: automation of handwritten data entry,
- Note Taking: handwriting conversion and the search for information in handwritten texts,
- Mobile Messaging: Pen based User Interfaces on mobile devices for e-mails, MMS and SMS,
- Education: teaching to write, games and educational multi-media.
Founded in 1998 by Stefan Knerr, Vision Objects today has a headcount of 20 and reported turnover of €1.5 million in 2004. Headquartered in Nantes with sales offices in Paris and San Francisco, the company does almost 80% of its business internationally. Key partners are HP, Anoto, the Hamelin Group and Logitech.
Vision Objects is managed by a team of recognized international specialists in this technology field: "I'm delighted to see both XAnge Capital and XAnge Private Equity coming on board at Vision Objects. This will help us to continue to develop new applications and to pursue our development internationally," said CEO Stefan Knerr. Nicolas Rose, Partner of XAnge Private Equity, declared: "Our investment in Vision Objects is the perfect reflection of XAnge Capital's mission of investing in business related to the activities of La Poste, document processing as it happens in the case. We see Vision Objects as one of the world leaders in its market sector of handwriting processing technologies. The quality of management and the company's achievements were also decisive in our choice."
For its part, XAnge Private Equity is operating as advisor to XAnge Capital and co-investor on behalf of its funds. ANVAR, which has been supporting the company since 1998, values the consumer and business market for mobile communications IT at more than 250 million units by 2006. The advisors involved in this transaction were Internet Mediation for advising the company, Azam-Darley for the legal aspects, Ernst & Young for the financial audit and Breese & Majerowicz for industrial property consulting.
About Vision Objects
Vision Objects, global leader in handwriting recognition and understanding, provides the industry standard in Handwriting Recognition Technology. Vision Objects’ ground-breaking MyScript Technology reliably recognizes and converts handwriting into smart, valuable and searchable digital information. MyScript is also available in many Western and Asian languages.
MyScript is integrated into many existing systems for high level form processing, personal information management, messaging and edutainment applications.
Vision Objects’ mission is to develop and market accurate and high performance Handwriting Recognition & Understanding software for any platform using handwritten data entry through pen-based user interfaces such as Digital Pens, PDAs, Tablet PCs and Smartphones.
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©2005 Vision Objects. All rights reserved. Vision Objects and MyScript are registered trademarks of Vision Objects. All other product and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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