Castile backs successful co-founder and CEO, Neal Creighton, in second venture with $10M for RatePoint

Neal Creighton Co-founder and CEO RatePoint

RatePoint, an online reputation management pioneer, has closed a $10 million Series B round of funding led by Castile.  We are pleased to once again partner with Neal Creighton, who was also the co-founder and CEO of Castile company GeoTrust before its successful acquisition by VeriSign.

"This funding confirms the explosive growth in online reputation management and establishes RatePoint as the catalyst," said Neal Creighton, cofounder and CEO of RatePoint.  "It is exciting to have the opportunity to work with Nina again.  Her insights on how to build market-transforming businesses were a tremendous asset at GeoTrust.”

RatePoint helps small- and medium-sized businesses manage and enhance their online reputation.  The company has developed a unique solution that allows SMBs to easily collect, manage, and promote customer feedback directly from their website.  RatePoint verifies the authenticity of all customer reviews and provides dispute resolution capabilities to respond to any potential unsatisfied customers to mitigate negative feedback before it is posted online.

RatePoint’s online reputation management solution includes feedback tools, email marketing, and survey capabilities to improve customer satisfaction, build trust, and increase profitability.  Castile led the round with participation by existing investors .406 Ventures and Prism VentureWorks. [More Info]

Mark Hoffman President and CEO Enquisite

Castile leads $8M financing for Enquisite; welcomes serial entrepreneur Mark Hoffman

Enquisite has secured $8 million in a Series B round led by Castile.  We are particularly pleased to welcome Enquisite’s president and CEO, Mark Hoffman, to our portfolio.  Mark was previously backed by Castile partner Skip Besthoff when Mark was president and CEO of Everdream, prior to its successful acquisition by Dell.  Says Mark: “I sought out Skip for this investment as I know he has an interest and appreciation of our market.  He is an outstanding board member and I look forward to working with him again.”

Enquisite is bringing to market disruptive solutions that enable advertisers and agencies to automate and monetize search marketing, and provide marketers with unprecedented insights into user behavior, intent, and actions.  The company’s leading-edge technology is offered under an innovative pay-for-performance business model.  Castile has joined new investor Formative Ventures and existing investors The Entrepreneurs’ Fund III and Retro Ventures.  “Investors have enthusiastically responded to Enquisite’s innovative campaign optimization solution and pay-for-performance model, which deliver unprecedented value to customers, with the satisfaction of measurable returns,” adds Mark Hoffman. [More Info]

Senior Management of Sandbridge at GSMA show in Barcelona

Sandbridge partners with Samsung to develop mobile handsets for evolving fourth generation (4G) networks

Mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics showcased several LTE devices based on Sandbridge’s processor platform during GSMA Mobile World Congress, a major industry event held in Barcelona last month.  LTE (“Long-Term Evolution”) is the cellular communications standard at the heart of 4G cellular networks that is being deployed by mobile operators for commercial service starting in 2010.  Samsung and Sandbridge also announced a joint development partnership focused on LTE:  “Sandbridge is proud to partner with Samsung to develop the LTE platform,” stated Paul Vroomen, Sandbridge’s president and CEO.  “We are excited by this joint collaboration which embraces a new generation of more powerful and flexible processors that are also more cost efficient and faster to develop.”

Also at this event, Sandbridge highlighted a variety of LTE products based on the company’s chipset developed in conjunction with several partners.  These included a smartphone, which the company believes to be the first operational LTE handset, a USB ‘dongle’ that allows laptops to access the 4G network for high-speed internet access, a miniature (‘femtocell’) base station, and a mobile test terminal.  The Sandbridge processor that powers this new generation of products was named by industry authority EE Times as a finalist for its Ace Awards in the ‘Most Innovative Mobile Processor’ category. [More Info]

Agito receives multiple awards including Product of the Year.

Agito expands into Europe; receives multiple awards including Product of the Year

Agito Networks has announced the European availability of its innovative enterprise fixed mobile convergence (eFMC) platform.  Agito’s platform enables cellphone use on enterprise networks to provide improved in-building voice coverage, reduced cellular costs, and better control over cellular usage.  The company’s differentiated solution, which comes with the broadest handset and PBX support of any system in the space, is now available through leading European channel partners.

Capping a series of significant awards over the past few quarters, Agito was also included in industry analyst Gartner’s report ‘Cool Vendors in Unified Communications, 2009’ where they stated “Most midsize and large enterprises should consider the Fixed Mobile Convergence solution from Agito Networks as a useful and practical approaches to their mobile-user requirements.”  Gartner’s analysts also selected one of Agito Networks enterprise mobile convergence customers as a finalist for the Gartner Wireless & Mobile Excellence Award, which recognizes best practices in increasing ROI on wireless investments.  Additionally, Agito announced that Internet Telephony selected them for a 2008 Product of the Year Award.  

Our congratulations to Agito for their outstanding industry recognition.[More Info]

Ahura Scientific receives second Cygnus Innovation Award .

Ahura receives additional award for innovation; releases liquid detection product for aviation industry

Ahura Scientific has received a Cygnus Innovation Award in the HazMAT/WMD category for its most recent product, TruDefender FT, a handheld system that identifies unknown chemicals.  This is the second time the company has been honored with this award, which recognizes innovative new products that assist police officers with their jobs.

The company last won a Cygnus Innovation Award for FirstDefender, a handheld device used to identify toxic materials, explosives, chemical warfare agents and narcotics.  Since FirstDefender was launched in 2005 it has become widely used by the military, public safety agencies and other first responders, and has become a clear leader in its category.  Two years later the company introduced TruScan, a handheld system used by pharmaceutical companies around the world to inspect and authenticate raw materials.  Last year, Ahura added TruDefender FT to its product line to complement FirstDefender by enabling first responders to identify an even broader range of unknown chemicals.

On this solid foundation, Ahura Scientific recently announced a solution for a new application: threat screening at airport checkpoints.  TruScreen builds on the company’s strength in developing compact optical systems for the identification and authentication of chemicals to provide non-invasive screening of potential explosives with a rapid sampling process that doesn’t interrupt passenger flow. [More Info]

Leading TV manufacturers to rely on ChosenSecurity to protect against piracy

CI Plus LLP, a consortium of TV manufacturers including Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony, have selected ChosenSecurity’s TC TrustCenter subsidiary to play a critical role in protecting pay TV services across Europe against piracy.  ChosenSecurity TC TrustCenter entered into an exclusive multi-year contact  to provide digital certificates, management services, and also the necessary registration for all TV devices, digital recorders and set-top box access modules who want to license the CI Plus standard. To guarantee the mass availability of compliant products, their certificates will be injected into every device during the manufacturing process.  The company developed an efficient and comprehensive solution to meet these challenging requirements.

“We chose ChosenSecurity TC TrustCenter because they demonstrated excellent technical expertise and an impressive responsiveness in adjusting to and acting on our specific requirements throughout the selection process,” explains Mark Londero of CI Plus LLP.  “They fully meet our expectations as a trusted partner to assist the market launch of the new CI Plus standard.”   [More Info]