iWitness Documents $11M Deal

Seeming to have found an available niche within the crowded electronic data management space, Boulder, Colo.-based iWitness Inc. is expected to announce today that it recently raised $11 million in its second round of institutional venture capital funding. The issuer, whose software product is designed to turn digital documents like email into business records of the same legal standing as paper documents, split the offering up into a pair of tranches, the latter of which closed last Wednesday.

Boulder-based Sequel Venture Partners led the deal?s $8.5 million first tranche, which closed in March.

“Certain companies have significant regulatory or legal issues where they need to be able to capture stored data and convert them into real business records,” said Tim Connor, a partner with Sequel Venture Partners and new iWitness board member. He added that likely clients of iWitness? system would be large financial services firms, pharmaceutical companies, oil and gas providers and information technology companies looking to protect their patents.

So far, the company?s product is in the testing stage at a number of investment banks. Mike Donaldson, president and chief executive of iWitness, estimated that actual production could begin within just a few months.

“This is the type of thing that we need to make sure it has absolutely no problems, because even a little thing could be costly,” Donaldson said. “So we?ve gone through an extensive testing period.”

Other investors involved in the deal included 75 Wall Street and Series A backers Telesoft Partners, Geneva Venture Partners and Wolf Ventures.

Donaldson said he expects to do another round of venture funding, but that such an offering is not a pressing issue. Connor concurred, saying that iWitness has enough capital to last 12 to 18 months, assuming no major pace changes to its business plan.

Dan Primack can be contacted at: Daniel.Primack@tfn.com