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Spokane Area venture fund (Northwest Venture Fund) boosts Seattle firm

A group led by Spokane-based Northwest Venture
Associates http://www.nwva.com/ has invested $5.6 million in a Seattle
provider of security software.

Bert Caldwell – Staff writer The Spokesman Review

Vigilos Inc. software allows users to integrate
closed-circuit television, access-control devices and
alarm systems, spokeswoman Linda Boyle said.

Take, for example, a campus with several structures
and multiple security systems, she said. If an
unauthorized entrance is detected, the event can be
matched with footage from security cameras in the
area, Boyle said.

She said the system can determine whom to notify,
and how. Although not intended to be an alarm
system, she said, operators alerted to suspicious
activity can see the information live.

"They can use our system to do kind of a virtual
patrol," Boyle said.

She said she could not reveal the names of firms now
using Vigilos systems, which have been available for
a year. The company, founded two years ago,
employs 28 in Seattle and another 10 software
programmers in India.

The funding arranged by Northwest Venture
Associates doubles the funding raised for Vigilos.
Boyle said the new money will be used to bolster
marketing of company systems and continue
development of the software.

General Partner Mark Mecham, who will join Vigilos’
board of directors, said Northwest discussed funding
with Vigilos a year ago, but felt the time was not right.

He said Vigilos founder and Chief Executive Officer
Geof Barker had already had success with an earlier
venture, Cobalt Group, and had worked with
Northwest Managing Partner Tom Simpson as an
investment banker. Northwest decided to get involved
after Vigilos software proved itself in the field, he
said.

Besides Northwest, Mecham said, the other
participants in the new round of financing for Vigilos
are wealthy individual investors, called "angels."

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=033002&ID=s1124925&cat=section.business

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