Avectra Raises $25.6 Million

Avectra Inc., a McLean, Va.-based provider of on-demand software for membership management , has raised $26.5 million in its first round of outside funding. Sterling Venture Partners led the deal, and was joined by HarbourVest Partners.

PRESS RELEASE
Avectra, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand software for membership management, announced that it has received a $26.5 million investment from Sterling Venture Partners, a private equity firm that provides growth and expansion capital to proven businesses. This is Avectra's first outside funding, with HarbourVest Partners also participating in this growth investment.

Founded in 1993, Avectra's netFORUM software solution provides tools for relationship management, fundraising, event management, certification, scheduling, ecommerce, marketing, accounting, committee management, and reporting. With over 25 integrated modules developed from direct customer input and refined during the last 14 years, Avectra's netFORUM serves more than 750 member-based organizations and 40 million members of its clients. Avectra is the only software vendor in the membership industry that offers the same sophisticated technology to meet the needs of large, medium and emerging member-based organizations. Avectra plans to use the capital from this investment to accelerate the development of netFORUM for all three of its customer groups and expand its industry leading customer service center. In addition, Avectra also plans to expand its sales and marketing efforts to promote the offering more broadly throughout North America and the international communities.

“Avectra provides associations and other member-based organizations with a single tool to meet all of their membership management needs,” said Barry Malek, the Company's Chairman and CEO. “Since its inception, Avectra has grown rapidly every year by offering industry-leading software solutions. Our partnership with Sterling Partners positions us to transform the traditional software deployment into membership software on-demand for organization of all sizes with the benefits of no upfront investment, predictable ongoing costs, full service software, and feature rich functionality.”

“Sterling Partners works with entrepreneurs such as Barry Malek who have established leadership positions in an industry,” said Jeffrey Moss, a Principal with Sterling Venture Partners. “Avectra's proven technology coupled with its exclusive focus on member-based organizations provides the foundation for continued growth both through enhancing functionality for existing customers and providing a strong membership management solution to organizations not yet using this tool.”

About Avectra

Avectra is the leading provider of on-demand, Web-based membership management software solutions that are the result of more than 14 years of experience serving member-based organizations of every size and discipline. Avectra's netFORUM solution enables organizations of all sizes to experience world class membership management. Avectra is headquartered in McLean, VA., and has offices in Chicago and Los Angeles. More information about Avectra and the netFORUM family of products can be found at www.avectra.com.

About Sterling Venture Partners

Sterling Venture Partners is an affiliate of Sterling Partners (“Sterling“), a private equity fund group with nearly $4 billion of capital under management. Founded in 1983, Sterling partners with superior management teams, invests in companies with strong business fundamentals and leverages the firm's proprietary methodology for acceleration of growth. Sterling collaborates closely with entrepreneurs and business owners to achieve the growth standard in their industry.

Sterling Venture Partners makes investments in companies seeking expansion stage and growth capital. The team initially deploys between $5 million to $25 million of equity in each portfolio investment, partnering with entrepreneurs who successfully established their companies as market leaders and are enthusiastic about executing upon untapped opportunities for their businesses. Industries of focus include software, healthcare technologies and services, education, business services, financial services, and direct marketing. More information about Sterling can be found at www.sterlingpartners.com.

About HarbourVest Partners

HarbourVest Partners, LLC is an independent global private equity investment firm and an SEC registered investment advisor, providing vehicles for institutional investors to invest in the venture capital and buyout markets in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere through primary partnerships, secondary purchases, and direct investments. HarbourVest and its subsidiaries have 166 employees, including 62 investment professionals deployed in Boston, London, and Hong Kong. In 25 years of investing in private equity, the team has committed more than $15.7 billion to newly formed funds, representing relationships with 200 private equity managers. The team has also completed over $3.8 billion in secondary purchases of partnership interests and invested $2.7 billion directly in operating companies. The firm's clients consist of 240 institutional investors, including pension funds, endowments, foundations, and financial institutions throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan. To learn more about HarbourVest, visit www.harbourvest.com.