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Tech entrepreneurs raise €2.1m for new venture
Sunday, April 19, 2009 By Adrian Weckler
A group of technology entrepreneurs who sold their last firm for €45 million have raised €2.1 million for their latest venture.

Garry Moroney and Chris McCauley are behind Clavis Technology, which has been backed by Delta Partners, Scottish Equity Partners and Enterprise Ireland. Moroney and McCauley, who sold Similarity Systems to US firm Informatica in 2005, received the €2.1 million in return for ‘‘around 25 to 30 per cent’’ of the new company’s equity.

The rest of the firm is owned by Moroney, McCauley and employees participating in a share ownership scheme. Brian Caulfield, a co-founder of Similarity Systems and former venture capitalist with TVC Holdings, sits on the company’s board of directors.

‘‘A technology start-up is still a very attractive investment,” said Moroney.

‘‘When you look at the last company we were involved in [Similarity Systems], there was €7.5 million invested in it in total. But we sold it for €45 million, so the maths are very good for investors in good projects.

‘‘A lot of the senior people involved in Clavis were involved in Similarity Systems, so we know what we’re doing.”

Moroney said that the company’s workforce was currently ‘‘in the teens’’ and that it had opened an office in New York.

Clavis would use the new funding to win business, and its initial focus was on consumer manufacturing companies.

Clavis operates in a similar sector to Similarity Systems, which developed technology to analyse and correct large volumes of data, such as customer and product information. Clavis uses the internet and cloud computing technology to prevent incorrect customer information from spreading throughout large companies.

‘‘You could look at bad data as being like a virus,” said Moroney.

‘‘Once it gets into the system of a large organisation, it’s really hard to try and get it out.

It becomes a bit like a big product recall. One of the reasons for this is that companies have implemented a lot of automation and taken people out of the data process.”

Clavis’s product creates a ‘‘central hub’’, where company managers, engineers and workers can input and access important customer information.

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