SeeUthere Sees Cash Infusion

Online meetings management firm SeeUthere Technologies of Santa Clara, Calif., late last month announced the closing of a $4.6 million round of equity financing and noted it achieved positive cash flow in October, a first for the company.

The new capital is earmarked for the expansion and development of SeeUthere products, said CEO John Chang, particularly its MeetingView meetings consolidation tool. That tool broadened its market penetration significantly in 2003, officials said, including deployments at Abbott Park, Ill.-based pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories and Louisville, Ky.-based health insurance firm Humana Inc.

"We have a strong market opportunity to accelerate product development and market penetration," Chang said. "We're going to continue to put resources behind the MeetingView system." The adoption by Humana and Abbott Labs is typical of the product's history thus far, Chang added. "Health care and pharmaceutical companies have a high percentage of total users," he said. "They are early adopters."

Chang anticipates SeeUthere will be able to maintain cash-flow-positive status throughout 2003 and into next year, but reserved the right to hedge that bet.

"This is not a one-time blip," he said, "but I tend to be conservative. There've been too many externalities the last few years, but we are continuing to see new business and existing customers are renewing."

SeeUthere's financing was led by Wachovia Strategic Ventures, with participation from Chinatrust Venture Capital and ABVentures-I. Existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Acer Technology Ventures and AsiaTech Ventures all participated.

~Chris Davis