Start-up : Right Vision raises 17.5 million euros

The start-up from the Riviera, the European leader of Internet Appliance Servers, has managed its third investment with Partech International, Innovacom and the bank MM Picket & Cie.

Of course, the third fund raising of Right Vision has not been easy. They have needed 4 to 5 months to finalize it. The context has become difficult while Anglo-Saxon investors are more and more reluctant. But eventually, they have succeeded in increasing the capital three days before being awarded by the Great prize of the new economy organized by l’Express. Set up in Mouans-Sartoux, Right Vision, the European leader of Internet Appliance Servers, has managed to raise 17.5 million euros (115 million francs) with worldwide famous institutional investors.To strengthen its position of European leaderPartech International has been the leader of this operation while Innovacom (the investment pool of France Telecom) and the bank MM Pictet & Cie have entered the capital as well. These three investors join the start-up’s other partners, which have entered during the previous two fund raisings (10 million francs in January 2000, 50 million francs in May 2000). CIC Finance, the Compagnie Finanacière Edmond de Rothschild, FD5 and Turenne Capital Partenaires were already in the capital of the company.Right Vision which has already put its Eve Box on the market (black boxes which allow SMEs or Internet Service Providers to manage easily Internet connections, mails, and other Net services) counts today more than 100 employees. This new contribution will allow the company to strengthen its position of unchallenged leader on the European market of Internet Appliance Servers.A partnership with Openshop”Our association with worldwide famous partners reinforces our current position and allows us to keep on developing commercially and strategically on the European scale,Jean-Claude Carles, the president of the board of directors, said. as a consequence, we will keep on developing our distribution network in Europe, our business partnerships with great telecom companies in order to allow all the companies to have an easy access to Internet.” Right Vision, which expects a turnover of 42 million euros this year with 8% of the European market, should as well keep on recruiting to strengthen its staff. So, 40 to 50 recruitments are scheduled by the end of the year.Other news about Right Vision : a partnership with Openshop, one of the main editor of electronic business solutions, in order to offer a complete e-business solution to ISP. This technologic partnership will allow Right Vision to integrate Openshop’s electronic business solutions in Eve-Box Pro package and to offer Internet hosting professionals the possibility to meet the new needs of companies. Right Vision and Openshop intend to market more than 1100 packages of this type by the end of the year 2001. An illustration of the strategy conducted at the moment.