South49 Solutions Completes Series A Financing, Enabling Continued Growth in New Markets

Originate Ventures Leads Investment Round Totaling $1.2 Million

STERLING, Va. and BETHLEHEM, Pa., Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ – South49 Solutions, a leading provider of solutions for managing distributed workforces, announced the completion of a $1.2 Million Series A financing round, led by Originate Ventures of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Several existing Angel investors also participated in the round and convertible debt holders, such as the Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology’s CIT GAP Funds, are being converted to shareholders. Thanks to South49 Solutions’ success in optimizing workforce management processes, its clients are growing and improving worker productivity, even in a slumping economy.

“An investment of this scope would be welcome at any time,” observes South49 president and CEO Stefan Midford. “But it’s especially significant now, when venture capital has become very difficult to secure. We believe it speaks to the success that our flagship product, NaturalInsight, has already had in the retail marketplace. This new funding will allow us to aggressively expand into other industries that also use distributed workforces, including home care services and educational organizations.”

NaturalInsight is a Web-based platform that helps companies improve the way they manage workforces and in the process, literally transform their business models. The solution enables workers in the field to schedule projects and submit status updates by phone, fax, mobile devices or the Web — and then organizes all the data in a single management portal for real-time reporting and analysis. As a result, managers can oversee and coordinate the activities of larger numbers of workers with significantly less effort.

The solution has already been widely adopted by clients in the retail and merchandising industry, notes Midford. Merchandising service organizations (MSOs), for example, employ it to coordinate the activities of thousands of part-time workers, who use the system to find, sign up for, and report on specific tasks in locations near them. In fact, in 2008 alone, companies used NaturalInsight to manage more than 1 million individual tasks in tens of thousands of locations across the country. At the same time, the solution is increasingly being seen as a way to attract new individuals to join distributed workforces, welcome news in an economy where layoffs are becoming increasingly common. In 2008, the numbers of registered workers using NaturalInsight doubled to over 27,000.

“We’re very excited about our new investment partners,” notes Midford. “Over the past three years, our revenue growth has averaged 70% a year. Based on what we’re seeing in the market, however, we believe this cash infusion will allow us to exceed even that pace over the next several years.”

“We believe NaturalInsight has only begun to tap its market potential,” agrees Mike Gausling, Originate Ventures’ co-founder and managing partner. “Its ability to transform a company’s business model truly puts it in a category by itself. We’re also very impressed by the long-term view the company has taken, both with respect to its continued product innovation and its relentless drive to address its customers’ needs.”

About South49 Solutions / www.south49.com

South49 Solutions develops and markets proprietary workforce management and data collection software for industries with widely distributed staff. South49 Solutions’ flagship product, NaturalInsight, is a fully integrated suite of online management tools that improves companies’ business models by streamlined scheduling, tracking and reporting of large scale projects performed in many locations. The company’s hosted solution model allows clients to minimize technology investment while improving overall performance and accountability.

About Originate Ventures / www.originateventures.com

Originate Ventures is a venture capital firm that targets early stage product and services companies in Pennsylvania and surrounding regions. The firm focuses on opportunities in the healthcare, consumer, information technology, Web-based and certain commercial product and distribution fields. Operating with an entrepreneurial spirit and vision, Originate invests in companies at various stages of development and when there is substantial opportunity to build shareholder value for the Fund and its investors. The company’s investments range in size from $500,000 to $4 million.

About the Center for Innovative Technology / www.cit.org

CIT is a nonprofit corporation that accelerates the next generation of technology and technology companies. CIT creates new technology companies through capital formation, market development and revenue generation services. To facilitate national innovation leadership and accelerate the rate of technology adoption, CIT creates partnerships between innovative technology start-up companies and advanced technology consumers.

    Media Contacts
    South49 Solutions
    Sherry Frazier
    703-431-7895
    sherryfrazierpr@aol.com

    Originate Ventures
    Shannon Morin
    610-866-5588

SOURCE South49 Solutions