Zenprise Raises $10 Million

Zenprise Inc., Fremont, Calif.-based provider of mobile management automation, has raised $10 million in Series D funding. Ignition Partners led the round, and was joined by return backers Bay Partners, Mayfield, and Shasta Ventures. The company has now raised over $37 million since 2004.

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

Zenprise, Inc., the leader in automating mobile management, today announced it completed a $10 million round of funding. The oversubscribed round was led by Ignition Partners, a venture capital firm based in Bellevue, WA. Previous investors Bay Partners, Mayfield, and Shasta Ventures all participated in the round. The funds will be used to bolster direct and channel sales, grow the company’s marketing efforts, and continue the company’s expansion in the U.S. and international markets. Cameron Myhrvold, Partner at Ignition Partners, joins the company’s Board of Directors as part of the investment.

 

Zenprise uses IT automation to drive efficiencies in monitoring, managing, and troubleshooting enterprise smartphone environments. According to The Radicati Group, there will be 600 million smartphones in the enterprise by 2011. This represents an increase of more than 1200 percent from the 49 million smartphones deployed today. Smartphone growth may be increasing, but IT budgets are flat or shrinking. As a result, IT departments need mobile management products that help improve operational efficiencies and reduce labor costs.

 

“We looked at several companies in the mobile systems management space and found that Zenprise’s automation-based approach delivers the highest value to enterprise customers,” said Cameron Myhrvold, Partner at Ignition Partners. “The company’s unique ZenPro automation technology allows IT to quickly find and fix user problems. Their innovative approach, coupled with the increased enterprise adoption of enterprise smartphones, presented a great investment opportunity for us.”

 

Zenprise has increased revenue by 300% over the last year, and has steadily added over 200 consumer, government, healthcare, legal, and energy customers. Customers range in size from as little as 10 mobile devices to as many as 50,000+ mobile devices. Companies, including Northwest Airlines, Sears, Fiat, US Army, and Boston Red Sox, all selected Zenprise to automate the monitoring, management, and troubleshooting of their smartphone environments.

 

“This investment brings some of the best minds in the mobile business to Zenprise. Our investors recognize the power that automation brings to mobile management and the important role it will play in helping us expand our industry footprint,” said Zenprise CEO Jayaram Bhat. “Raising a significant round of funding in the current economic environment validates the immediate need for our solution and the value we deliver to a customer’s bottom line.”

 

Ignition’s partners have built some of the world’s most successful businesses of the last two decades, including Microsoft Windows and Office, McCaw Cellular Communications, AT&T Wireless and Starbucks.

 

To learn more about Zenprise’s management of BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows Mobile environments, please visit www.zenprise.com/products.

 

About Zenprise

 

Zenprise’s award-winning software automates mobile management. The software automatically troubleshoots end user issues across BlackBerry®, iPhone, and Windows Mobile environments. Unlike pure monitoring solutions, Zenprise identifies the root cause of end user issues and provides detailed resolution steps to fix these problems. Founded in 2003, Zenprise is headquartered in Fremont, California and is privately held with funding from investors Bay Partners, Ignition Partners, Mayfield Fund, and Shasta Ventures. Zenprise’s executive and product teams bring enterprise software experience from companies such as Mercury, EDS, Zambeel, Bay Networks, and Loudcloud. For more information, go to www.zenprise.com.

 

About Ignition Partners

 

Ignition Partners, headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity — from turning their early stage idea into a business, to hiring the right team, providing the right industry and functional insight and connections, and growing their business strategically, globally and financially to realize the best ultimate outcome. Ignition invests in emerging and future leaders in communications, Internet, software and services across business and consumer targets. Ignition brings together an unparalleled combination of domain focus, technical expertise and global operational experience. Ignition’s partners are proven business leaders who have built some of the world’s most successful businesses of the last two decades, including Microsoft Windows and Office, McCaw Cellular Communications, AT&T Wireless and Starbucks. More information is available at www.ignitionpartners.com.