About

The Eden Ventures team is a mix of successful entrepreneurs and investment professionals.  Our blend of knowledge, experience and skills covers business strategy, sales and marketing, finance and operations, M&A transactions and institutional fund management.

Get in touch with us at: info@edenventures.co.uk or on +44 (0)1225 472950.

Apertio
Acquired by Nokia Siemens Networks for $240 million in May 2008.

Eden partners were founding investors in  Apertio, which was established in 2002 and which, over the next five years, grew rapidly to become a leading global provider of mobile network infrastructure software.  Eden Ventures invested as an institutional investor in early 2005.

Apertio was conceived when a group of ex-Lucent executives, led by Paul Magelli, spotted some technology that had been developed within Orange but was ‘sitting on the shelf’.  The Group, backed by Eden partners and other angels including Mike Tokarz, acquired the technology and built a team which included senior figures from Orange, Motorola, Siebel, IBM, Oracle and LogicaCMG.

The core product enables mobile operators to simplify their networks by consolidating subscriber data into a single repository at the heart of the network. Key customer benefits include increased revenue through rapid service deployment and significant cost reduction.

With customers including Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone, the 2007 Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track survey named Apertio as the UK‘s fastest-growing private telecommunications company and the second fastest-growing private technology company overall. Turnover for 2007 was $28 million.

Apertio successfully raised a number of rounds of finance from investors including T-Ventures, Deutsche Venture Capital, Add Partners and Motorola.  Michael Jackson (ex-Sage) joined as non-executive Chairman in 2007 and, at the time of its acquisition by Nokia Siemens Networks, Apertio had 237 employees across its Bristol headquarters and regional offices in Berlin, Chicago, Beijing, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

As well as contributing the initial seed finance, Eden was instrumental in building the business, including bringing significant operational and global sales expertise to bear.

www.apertio.com

Some of the companies we developed before creating Eden:

Cramer Systems
Acquired by Amdocs for $425 million in 2006.

Eden partners David Embleton and Mark Farmer were instrumental in the founding, development and growth of Cramer Systems, widely acknowledged as the world leader in telecoms service and network inventory software.  Cramer’s products reduce the operating costs of fixed and wireless networks.  The Company was acquired by business and operational support systems specialist, Amdocs, in 2006.  The transaction won the European Technology Forum’s Deal of the Year Award in 2007 and the Investor AllStars’ Exit of the Year Award for 2007.

OD2
Acquired by Loudeye in 2004.

On Demand Distribution (OD2) is Europe’s no.1 supplier of white label music platforms and business-to-business digital media distribution.  The Company was founded in 1999, by Eden partner Charles Grimsdale.  Today, OD2 powers the digital music services of many major online brands.  It was acquired by digital media technology company Loudeye in 2004, which was subsequently acquired by Nokia in 2006.

Exony
Exony provides interaction management software for customer service operations (virtual contact centres) in a wide range of industries across Europe and North America, including communications and technology, financial services, retail, transport and logistics and government departments.  Customers include BT, Vodafone, Microsoft, Cisco, Cable & Wireless, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Marks & Spencer, and the Home Office.  Eden partners were seed investors in Exony.  

CreditCall
Pioneers of the cash-free world, CreditCall specialises in the processing of credit and debit card payments.  Its principal areas are: processing card payments at unattended machines or over the internet and developing card payments software (such as Chip & PIN and the magnetic stripe).  Customers include train operators Virgin and First Great Western.  It is the only UK provider of credit and debit card facilities for pay and display parking.  Initially a seed investor, Eden partner Charles Grimsdale also served as Interim Chairman.