New York, NY – (January 14, 2008) – Wimba, the education technology company that helps people teach people, announced today that it has secured additional funding from ABS Ventures, a leading institutional venture capital firm – bringing the total amount raised from new Series B investors to $10 million, led by Ascend Venture Group LLC.
The additional funds will be used to accelerate the company’s global sales and marketing capabilities throughout the world and to expand development of Wimba Collaboration Suite, the education industry’s leading collaborative learning environment for online and blended learning.
Wimba enables educational institutions to transform teaching and learning through a comprehensive suite of software to create a collaborative online learning environment for K-12 and higher education. The Wimba Collaboration Suite facilitates the use of voice, presence, chat, sharing, video, assessment, and content to over 1,000 educational customers in 17 countries. The market continues to endorse the company’s multi-modal approach to teaching and learning—last week Wimba announced the Utah Education Network (UEN) signed a statewide agreement to deploy the Wimba Collaboration Suite across Utah’s 10 public colleges and universities and 41 K-12 school districts serving more than 750,000 students.
“Our investment in Wimba reflects our confidence in the company’s proven ability to execute on its collaboration-centric product strategy, customer traction and exceptional management team,” said Andy Mims, principal at ABS Ventures. “Wimba is well positioned to expand its global leadership in the emerging collaborative learning software market. We are excited to join with Ascend Venture Group, Tudor Investment Corporation, and other investors in the company’s next stages of growth.”
“ABS Ventures is a premier investor and their confidence is another strong endorsement of our vision and team’s ability to execute,” said Tommaso Trionfi, chief executive officer of Wimba. “Wimba continues to demonstrate market leadership through its ability to bring the education market’s most human collaboration solution to help educators such as Utah Education Network to support the growing and diverse needs of the K-20 community.”
About ABS Ventures
Formed in 1982, ABS Ventures is a Boston-based venture capital firm backed by leading global institutional investors. The firm works with exceptional management teams to build industry leading companies in the software, communications and healthcare sectors.
ABS Ventures provides more than just capital. The team brings to bear its collective operational and enterprise-building expertise as well as an extensive network of industry contacts. ABS Ventures works in partnership with management teams and believes that patience and a long term approach drive great performance.