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AgileTV Closes $22 Million in Funding
Valence Capital Management Leads Latest Round
MENLO PARK, Calif., May 17 /PRNewswire/ -- AgileTV, the leading provider of
voice navigation services for the cable television industry, announced its
closing of $22 million in funding led by Valence Capital Management, LP. Also
participating in the round are Insight Communications (NASDAQ:ICCI) and private
investors including Lauder Partners. In conjunction with the financing, AgileTV
adds two new members to the Company's Board of Directors including James A.
Caccavo, CEO, Valence Capital Management and Roy Thiele-Sardina, Venture
Partner, Valence Capital LLC.
The funding will fuel the ongoing delivery and product development of AgileTV's
voice navigation service for the cable television industry. The company's core
product, Promptu, uses a voice activated remote control and server-centric
voice recognition technology that allows cable television viewers to search for
favorite programs by genre or find a specific show simply by saying the program
name, network name, favorite actor or sports team regardless of whether it's on
broadcast, On Demand or DVR.
"The cable industry is very focused on solving the challenge of finding ways to
help consumers experience the full array of television programming available
today," said James Caccavo of Valence Capital Management. "AgileTV's voice
navigation service is the solution. Add to that the company's strong management
team, solid technology and early lead in the marketplace, we believe the
overall opportunity with the cable industry is very promising."
"As cable television continues to add new programming choices and advanced
services such as On Demand and DVR functionality, viewers increasingly need a
simple way to navigate through hundreds of channels and programs," said Michael
Willner, CEO of Insight Communications, the nation's ninth largest cable
operator. "AgileTV's voice recognition technology offers the industry a cost
effective, easy to implement solution that will provide customers with
increased value -- and, it's just plain cool technology."
Promptu utilizes an extensive, dynamically managed database of more than
100,000 phrases and delivers higher than 90 percent voice recognition accuracy.
Promptu has been developed and tested with significant input from cable
operators and their customers. Consumer trials have resulted in very positive
response to the service because it makes finding viewer's favorite programs
fast and easy. Promptu is currently in market trials with several top cable
operators.
"Our investors see the tremendous potential of voice navigation in delivering a
compelling interactive television service that is a competitive differentiator
for cable operators," said Paul Cook, founder and CEO, AgileTV. "This latest
round will help support our continued growth and development as we deploy the
service with cable operators."
The AgileTV system is designed to scale from thousands to hundreds of thousands
of voice-enabled customers from a single cable headend. Its large-scale, server
centric voice recognition technology enables operators to offer the service at
much lower cost than embedded systems. The system is fully compatible with
millions of deployed set-top boxes and has a very fast response time of less
than a second from the viewer's voice command to the requested program
appearing on the TV.
Valence Capital Management, LP is a New York based private equity firm which
serves as the private equity arm of Moore Capital Management, one of the
largest hedge funds in the world. Valence invests in leading late stage venture
backed and middle market companies in the Information technology, media,
consumer products and business services markets. Valence presently manages over
25 portfolio investments.
Lauder Partners is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that has a
specialty in cable TV technology vendors and has invested in 22 other cable or
interactive TV ventures since 1990. It invests at all stages of development.
New board members Caccavo and Thiele-Sardina join AgileTV founder and CEO, Paul
Cook, Alan Herzig a retired investment banker, Gary Lauder of Lauder Partners,
and Guy Sucharczuk, president and CEO of Aurora Networks, on AgileTV's Board of
Directors.
About AgileTV Corporation
AgileTV is a leader in voice navigation services for the cable industry. The
company's core product, Promptu, offers cable television viewers a simple and
fast way to search for programs on broadcast television, On Demand and on the
DVR. AgileTV's large-scale, server centric voice recognition technology enables
cable operators to increase the use and value of digital cable.
AgileTV was founded in April 2000 and is privately held. The company is based
in Menlo Park, California, and is led by a senior executive team with extensive
backgrounds in Cable Television, Voice Recognition, Consumer Products, Hardware
and Software Development and System Integration. The company's major equity
holders include Valence Capital Management LP, Insight Communications, Lauder
Partners and private investors. For more information: http://www.agile.tv/.
DATASOURCE: AgileTV Corporation
CONTACT: Helen Chung of JLM Partners, +1-206-381-3600, or
, for AgileTV Corporation
Web site: http://www.agile.tv/