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internetVista, the young Belgian company that provides website monitoring services, has announced it has obtained an injection of capital from E-merge. The deal gives E-merge a 33% share in internetVista. The new capital will enable internetVista to speed up its commercial growth and continue to expand its range of services. internetVista offers a monitoring service that delivers constant external checks to ensure that websites are operating properly, as well as other Internet services (mail servers, file transfers, etc.). Any interruption to the availability of an Internet service is notified immediately to the owner of the service by e-mail and SMS.
internetVista (formerly known as Lyncos) is a young company that was created in 2003 by two graduates and IT masters from FUNDP in Namur, Cédric Braem and Christophe Darville.
“A company’s website is its shop window to the outside world,” states Christophe Darville, co-director and co-founder of internetVista. “In terms of communication, information and revenue – especially for e-commerce - a website is a wonderful and powerful tool. However, if for any reason the site is unavailable or does not work properly, the consequences can be disastrous for a company’s image and revenue. So, to avoid the aggravation and inconvenience of these problems, we decided to provide businesses with a platform developed totally in Java that provides constant monitoring of their sites.”
In practical terms, internetVista keeps tabs on company websites from a number of points of presence located around the world (Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and the United States) at a checking frequency that varies between 1 and 60 minutes, depending on the customer’s requirements. The actual monitoring is conducted from outside the IT system hosting the website being monitored and adopts a position similar to a customer or someone simply surfing the Net. When there is the slightest problem of unavailability, an alert is immediately sent to the client by e-mail and/or SMS.
“The big advantage of internetVista, is its cost,” explains Cédric Braem, the other co-director and co-founder of internetVista. “Our fixed monthly charge of approximately 10 EUR for monitoring every 5 minutes and 60 EUR for every minute – which is negligible in the scheme of the budgets allocated to website development and the negative impact of having your website unavailable - means you can be certain of receiving immediate notification if anything goes wrong with your site. We also have an à la carte pricing policy, which guarantees total transparency. Better still, the internetVista service indicates the type of problem encountered and makes it possible to check the response time from its five points of presence. The system also generates monthly, weekly and daily availability reports. This latter feature is particularly attractive in cases where the management of a company wants to be informed about availability levels and the average response time for its website.”
“By taking this interest in internetVista, our venture capital company is underlining its willingness to invest in promising young Belgian businesses,” observes Laurent Drion, co-founder and co-manager of E-merge. “When we select the investments we make, our preference always goes to companies with a significant potential for growth and a high level of automation - businesses that are generating ongoing revenue and which have top-quality managers who are fully committed. internetVista meets all of those criteria and that is why we feel totally confident in what they are doing and why we actively support their plans for expansion. This fresh injection of cash will also enable the two directors of the company to devote themselves fully to creating business partnerships and boosting their customer base, especially internationally.”
About E-merge
Created in 1998 by two Belgian entrepreneurs, Laurent Drion and Gregory Hédo, E-merge is a venture capital company that focuses on young businesses and promising initiatives in the technology and Internet market. Being businessmen more than financiers, Laurent Drion and Gregory Hédo are well aware of the challenges facing young companies. In 1990 they founded the IT distribution company Macline, which they ran for 10 years. Their first experience of venture capital came in the form of a 25% holding in Skynet, which was subsequently purchased by Belgacom.
To date, E-merge has already invested in 15 or so businesses, which have used this support either to break through successfully in their particular markets or be on the point of doing so. The best known of these businesses include Ogone, M-Cube, Macline, Opendeal (which as become eBay Belgium), BlueBackup and Voxbone.
Projects submitted to E-merge are examined in depth and a strict selection process is applied on the basis of technological and commercial potential, knowledge and know-how, and the experience and commitment of the managers, as well as the technological and automated structures of the business and its stability of revenue. In addition to support with funding, E-merge also provides consultancy and support in terms of strategic management, marketing, finance, administration and business development to the businesses it invests in. The companies that benefit from the support of E-merge also have access to the investor’s extensive network of business contacts.
For more detailed information, visit the E-merge website at www.emerge.be. For information about internetVista, go to www.internetVista.com or contact:
internetVista SA
Cédric Braem
Tel +32 490 22 91 90
cbr@internetVista.com
E-Merge SA
Laurent Drion
Tel +32 (0)2 464 94 60
ld@emerge.be
LVT Benelux PR
Vera Luypaert / Pascal Brabant
Tel + 32 (0)2 474 17 40
vera@lvtpr.com / pascal@lvtpr.com
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