MONTREAL, Canada -- Proxima Systems Ltd., global provider of mission critical Customer Care & Billing solutions, announced today the conclusion of a $3.5 million investment from the GATX/MM Venture Finance Partnership. This investment will enable Proxima to accelerate its penetration in key markets in Europe, where it has recently been awarded a major contract. The investment will also permit Proxima to improve its product line through functionality and performance enhancements.
Proxima develops Customer Care and Billing software solutions for the competitive telecommunications industry, servicing Integrated Communications Providers (ICPs), as well as pure-play Cable, Telephony and Internet operators. As a strategic evolution, Proxima has been developing and marketing new cutting-edge solutions specifically designed to answer the needs of emerging service providers with a special attention to the challenges induced by the convergence of services. The flagship product Mystral, positions Proxima as offering one of the only truly convergent solutions available today, a key feature that is increasingly being sought after by telecommunications operators. With its customer-centric architecture, the operator can manage all defining characteristics of each and every customer, being either business or residential. With such architecture, new services, even whole business lines, can be easily added and managed by the operators - with no additional development effort.
"This endorsement by GATX/MM Venture Finance Partnership, one of Canada's leading Private Venture Capital firms, not only further validates Mystral, but also the strides that Proxima has made towards becoming the industry leader in the European Telecommunications market" said Pierre Collins, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Proxima. "Additionally, the Partnership's strong network of relationships will be a valuable asset for us going forward".
"The superior technology and features of Mystral combined with a new high calibre management team, have undoubtedly contributed towards Proxima's marked successes and our confidence in them. Their success in the marketplace having signed up large telecommunications operators is great utilization of their software and team," said Minhas Mohamed, Managing Partner of MM Venture Partners, the General Partner of the $150 million GATX/MM Venture Finance Partnership. "Proxima has all the ingredients for future success in place".
About the GATX/MM Venture Finance Partnership This privately held $150 million venture capital fund focuses exclusively on private technology companies in Canada. GATX/MM Venture Finance Partnership has focused specifically on a niche in the capital markets by providing venture debt financing to Canadian information technology and biotechnology companies. Founded in 1998, MM Venture Partners is headquartered in Toronto. The fund's Partner, San Francisco based GATX Capital Corp., is a global diversified investor. For further information please visit
http://www.mmvp.com/ About Proxima Systems Ltd.Proxima Systems Ltd. is a global provider of mission critical customer care and billing software packages for the telecommunications industry. Currently more than 24 million invoices for the telecommunications services are produced yearly with Proxima's software solutions throughout Europe, Latin America and North America. Proxima's head office is located in Montréal, Canada. It also has sales offices in Europe and North America. For more information, contact the Company at 111 Duke Street, 3rd floor, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, H3C 2M1, tel.: +1.514.448.4000, fax: +1.514.875.5167, or visit the Company's Web site at
http://www.proxima.ca/ For more information, please contact:
Proxima Systems Ltd.
Susan Barthe, Director, Marketing and Communications
Tel: 514-448-4022
sbarthe@proxima.ca MM Venture Partners
Ron Patterson, Partner
Tel: 416-977-9718
rpatterson@mmvp.com