At a time when technology plays are stuggling to raise funds to their heads above water, New York-based Always-On, Inc. announced it had secured an additional $13.5 million in a third round of equity financing.
Always-On, which operates a data center to manage software applicatons for small businesses, said venture capital firms Star Ventures and Koor Corporate VC led the funding round which injected $12 million in equity financing and $1.5 million in debt offerings.
Previous investors Coral Ventures, American Catalyst, Synergy Ventures also participated in this round, a company spokesman told atNewYork.
The 75-employee firm, which has roots in Israel, makes money by selling subscriptions to small businesses interested in using software through Internet connections.
Typically, Always-On would collect a monthly fee to run applications like Microft Office, Corel and other accounting packages though its Web-based data center.
Company spokesman Ronald Leong said Always-On operates as a central computing platform for the small business industry, on and offline.
“Instead of small businesses running the applications from their desktops, we run the applications in our (internet-based) data center. We also sell tech support and other IT services,” Leong said.
The company targets small business with in the 25-50 employee range but Leong said Always-On is equipped to handle accounts for entrepreneurs with up to 100 employees.
Always-On CEO Doron Gordon said the latest infusion of capital would be used to expand the company’s services in the U.S and Europe.
“We view this significant financial commitment as an important vote of confidence in Always-On by the financial community, particularly during this tough economic period,” Gordon said.
Founded in 1999 in Israel, Always-On has offices in the Washington D.C. area, Germany, and France.