NetLedger Closes $20m Third Round, Adds ADP as Investor

Today NetLedger announced it closed $20 million in its third round of financing and added a board member.

This round was led by venture capital group StarVest Partners, LP (New York), and included investments from PaineWebber and ADP.

According to NetLedger, Deborah Farrington, co-founder of StarVest, will join NetLedger’s board.

NetLedger wanted to broaden the base of its investors to include companies that focus on distribution and technical skills. “ADP knows a lot about payroll and PaineWebber knows a lot about equity and small businesses,” Bill Mirbach, president and chief executive officer, said.

Mirbach also told ASP-News that the $20 million raised seemed like the right amount.

“We turned people away in order to stop at $20 million,” he said. “The more money you raise, the more you dilute the value of the stock of the founders and employees.

According to Mirbach, the money will be used to run the company, build out its infrastructure and invest in marketing to build out its customer base.

So what is next for NetLedger in terms of another round of financing?

“We like the idea of going public,” Mirbach told ASP-News. “We have a timeframe in mind, but we have to wait and see.

Mirbach said its IPO announcement will depend on the market and what the board members believe will be in the best interest for NetLedger.

In related news, the company released NetLedger Canada last week, opening an additional market for the company.

“This is a preview of the fact that NetLedger will be a worldwide product,” Mirbach said.

NetLedger is also working on its next version, NetLedger 4.0, which will be coming out soon, according to Mirbach. This announcement comes just a month after the more recent version release (see related ASP-News story, NetLedger Releases Version 3.0, New Set of XML Standards,May 15th, 2000).

“Version 4.0 is really cool with more breakthrough features,” Mirbach said.