Web 2.0 start-up Synthasite has secured $5 million (R33.5 million) funding from Columbus Venture Capital (VC) to continue the development of its Web-publishing engine in California, says co-founder Vinny Lingham.
Lingham co-founded Synthasite about two years ago, with the aim of creating a Web-publishing engine that anyone could use - with no knowledge of HTML needed - through the use of drag-and-drop procedures and with configurable dialogue windows.
Columbus VC is part of the global Richemont group that is usually associated with luxury brands such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget, IWC, Alfred Dunhill and Montblanc.
A statement by Columbus VC says it is part of the group's strategy to focus on opportunities presented by the convergence between global branded consumer markets, IT and digital media.
"Columbus VC believes the fast-growing luxury sector will benefit substantially from enabling technologies in, for instance, the areas of electronic retailing, channel e-commerce, data security and authentication," the statement says.
Lingham says the investment is a "series A" financing round that should take the company well into 2009, before the need for a next round would be evaluated.
"If the company moves fast, the current investor, Columbus VC, is sufficiently well capitalised and in a position to fully respond to the company's future financing needs. However, the question of adding a strategic, or other complementary value-adding investors, might be a consideration at that time."
Lingham says Synthasite will keep some of its research and development functions in SA, However, it needs to be located in California in order to be as close to the centre of Web 2.0 development as possible, he notes.
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