Press Releases

Arena Solutions Secures $5 Million in Series C Funding

Round led by Otter Capital and Arthur Rock, Joined by Warren Hellman

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 20, 2003 — Arena Solutions, Inc., the leading provider of online Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced it has secured $5 million in Series C funding in an oversubscribed round led by private equity investment firm Otter Capital and Silicon Valley icon Arthur Rock and joined by renowned investor Warren Hellman. Arena will use the funds to accelerate sales, strengthen its market presence and maintain an aggressive approach to expanding the Arena PLM product.

“Arena is ideally positioned to exploit the emergence and convergence of two explosive software trends: PLM and web-hosted software services,” said John Pasquesi, managing member of Otter Capital LLC and chairman of Arena Solutions. “PLM software is becoming a ‘must have’ for manufacturers -- as imperative to their business as ERP or CRM software. However, they want a PLM solution that offers a quick ROI and is affordable -- something the ‘on-demand’ Arena web services delivery model affords. Arena offers manufacturers the fastest and most cost-effective way to implement PLM. With the days of complex, costly, and uncertain client-server software deployments coming to an end, the company is a very compelling investment opportunity.”

“My investment criterion is simple. I invest in people, and I like what I see at Arena,” said Arthur Rock, co-founder of Intel, lead investor in Fairchild Semiconductor, Apple, and other Silicon Valley companies and the West Coast’s original venture capitalist. “They’re intellectually honest and know where they’re going and how they’re going to get there. The Arena management team is passionate about building a great company, and I’m delighted to be able to help them achieve that.”

Since its launch in June 2001, the Arena PLM application has achieved swift market acceptance and is the fastest growing PLM company today. Its web-native architecture enables customers to deploy the software in a matter of days, rather than the many months typical of client-server systems — and begin seeing the return on their investment instantly. Arena PLM customers incur none of the hardware, staffing or set-up costs traditionally required to install and maintain enterprise-class software and instead pay just a low, per-user subscription fee. OEMs and their designated partners and suppliers have secure, universal accessibility to the application: they can use it anytime, from anywhere in the world where there is a web browser and Internet connection. The Arena PLM delivery model lets customers pilot the application without a large investment to validate that it provides measurable benefits. The architecture also means that companies using Arena PLM receive automatic software upgrades on a regular basis. Existing customers have already benefited from the seamless introduction of several major new feature sets, as well as ongoing functionality and usability enhancements.

“While the overall funding environment remains challenging, the tremendous customer adoption of Arena PLM made it relatively easy for us to raise capital,” said Michael Topolovac, chief executive officer of Arena Solutions. “After seven consecutive quarters of significant double-digit sales growth, we can demonstrate to investors a very attractive business model. We were also fortunate not to need the additional funding to reach profitability --which of course made it easier to raise -- but we now have the resources to exploit the tremendous market opportunity more quickly.”

About Arena Solutions
Arena Solutions is the leading provider of on–demand (SaaS) product lifecycle management solutions for manufacturing companies of all sizes. As the only true on–demand, secure Internet–based PLM service, Arena PLM provides a superior alternative to complicated, lengthy and expensive traditional PLM software deployments. Through its award–winning service, Arena enables product manufacturers and their global supply chains to streamline outsourcing, improve operational efficiencies, and speed time–to–market. Arena PLM has been adopted by more than 15,000 users across companies at all stages of development, including industry leaders Foundry Networks, Color Kinetics, Intuit, Sierra Wireless, Align Technology and more.

Arena Solutions’ market–changing approach to PLM has received significant recognition in the industry, including Manufacturing Business Technology’s Top 40 Emerging Vendors, the Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100, Industry Week’s “Technology of the Year – Notable Innovators” and Start Magazine’s “Hottest” Companies.

Founded in February 2000, Arena Solutions is headquartered in Foster City, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.arenasolutions.com.

Contact:
Cindi Goodsell
cgoodsell@arenasolutions.com
1.510.479.9015

Arena PLM is a trademark of Arena Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names are the property of their respective holders.