Akoya Closes $800,000 On Series A Financing
Posted on November 11th, 2004

Peoria, Ill (November 8, 2004) - Akoya, Inc. a business intelligence software company in the direct materials purchasing industry, announced today the initial close on investment financing being led by ARCH Development Partners LLC, Caterpillar Inc. and Tri-County Venture Capital Fund. In total the company raised $800,000 to help commercialize its flagship product, CostPoint™. The core CostPoint technology was developed by Caterpillar and is being spun out in collaboration with Peoria NEXT as part of Caterpillar’s strategy to commercialize new technologies.

Through the CostPoint technology, Akoya will enable large corporations to better analyze their direct materials spend and gain a competitive advantage by helping to reduce the cost of goods sold. Unlike traditional business intelligence software, CostPoint software tool uses sophisticated data mining algorithms to analyze part features, construct “should cost” curves across individual families of parts, and determine the key drivers that affect the cost of the parts. Using CostPoint, an analysis that previously took purchasing experts months to complete can now be done in weeks or days.

“As a group, the largest manufacturing companies currently spend over $400 billion total in direct material purchases annually,” said Ted Greene, CEO of Akoya. “These companies are continually looking to reduce all of the costs associated with these direct materials, and most senior management teams have set annual reduction goals of five to ten percent. Our proprietary technology provides enhanced analysis that allows purchasing experts to quickly make educated decisions about their direct material spend. We have not found any other product on the market that does what CostPoint will do.”

It is intended that Robert A. Schriesheim, a managing partner of ARCH Development Partners, Thea Robinson, manager of technology commercialization at Caterpillar, and Lee Hoffman, Tri-County Venture Capital Fund representative, will all serve on the Akoya Board of Directors in conjunction with the investment.

“CostPoint technology addresses a clear market need,” said Schriesheim. “The Akoya management team has a proven track record of success in the industrial software industry, and we believe that the company can quickly capitalize on a sizable market opportunity.”

The technology that drives CostPoint was developed by Caterpillar employees Shamala Srinivasan and Nelson A. Jones and is being used today by the company. As part of its investment in Akoya, Caterpillar has contributed the intellectual property behind the base software product to the venture. “Our talented people created a new software product to address a specific challenge for the company. This technology has value in the open market, but Caterpillar is not a software company. Through Peoria NEXT, we were able to spin out this technology to software marketing experts who can use this product to attract investors and bring new business into the community,” said Robinson.

“Akoya is exactly the type of venture in which the Fund was designed to invest,” said Hoffman. “This investment represents our confidence in Akoya and our community’s commitment to ensuring that the company has everything it needs to commercialize this promising technology in the Peoria area.”

Akoya will be headquartered in Peoria, IL. The name Akoya, derived from the Akoya Cultured Pearls, signifies the search for value that is the hallmark of this new software.

CLICK HERE for information on Tri-County Venture Capital Fund's Investment in Akoya.

About ARCH Development Partners (www.archdp.com): ARCH Development Partners, LLC (“ARCH”) is a Chicago-based, seed-stage venture capital fund focused on identifying and commercializing platform technologies developed in research-based universities, institutions and corporations in the upper Midwest. ARCH focuses on two investment sectors comprised of: (1) information services/technology, communications, and enterprise software and (2) life sciences and biotechnology. ARCH combines operations and seed investment experience in the Midwest and partners with universities, corporations and communities to create startups from world-class technology.

About Caterpillar Inc. (www.cat.com): For more than 75 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been building the world's infrastructure, and in partnership with Caterpillar dealers, is driving positive and sustainable change on every continent. With 2003 sales and revenues of $22.76 billion, Caterpillar is a technology leader and the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. Caterpillar invested nearly $669 million in research and technology in 2003 with its employees earning more than 2,800 patents in the past six years. More information is available at www.cat.com.

About Tri County Venture Capital Fund: The Tri County Venture Capital Fund is a subsidiary of the Heartland Capital Network designed to meet the venture capital needs of the Illinois Heartland. The $2 million fund is made up of a consortium of investors that invest collectively in various business ventures.