Oxx Leads $12m USD Funding Round in Apica
First investment by Oxx since launch in January 2017
STOCKHOLM and LONDON, September 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Oxx, the growth capital investment firm focussed on B2B software companies, is pleased to announce that it is leading a $12m USD funding round in Stockholm-based Apica, a leading software company providing products to test and monitor the performance of software applications.
Existing investors including Nordic VC Industrifonden, the venture capital arm of the leading Nordic bank, SEB Venture Capital and Swedish early-stage investor KTH Chalmers Capital also participated in the round.
The investment will help Apica expand its market presence in the U.S. and Europe outside of the Nordics. The team has over 30 people in place in the United States - and growing - with 50% of its bookings already coming from this market. This strong traction in the United States, which is the largest and most demanding market, is a fantastic benchmark and one of the drivers of the Oxx investment.
Apica was founded in 2005 in Stockholm, Sweden, and now has offices in New York, Los Angeles and London. With customers including Scholastic, Klarna, Q2ebanking, Etihad and Sweden's TV4, the firm has strong international market share among the most demanding enterprise customers. Customers choose Apica's products because they seek to optimize system performance and prevent system failures. According to IDC[1], application failures cost the average Fortune 1000 company $1.25bn-$2.5bn each year - equating to an astonishing $500,000-$1m per hour of downtime.
Oxx is focussed on investing in B2B scale-up stage software companies with commercial traction. With offices in London and Stockholm, Oxx was launched earlier this year by Richard Anton and Mikael Johnsson who both departed Amadeus Capital Partners in 2016 to found Oxx.
Mikael Johnsson, Oxx General Partner, said, "Apica is an exciting business with a fantastic team and product offer. The market for performance testing and monitoring software is worth billions of dollars, is well established and going through major disruption. Apica's products, team and structure put it in an excellent position for growth, particularly given its ambitions in the U.S., where we see the biggest potential. This transaction therefore fits perfectly into our sweet spot and is exactly the sort of deal we intended to execute when we founded Oxx."
Carmen Carey, Apica CEO, said, "We are so pleased that Oxx has recognised our growth potential and invested in us at this stage. To have someone with Mikael's expertise and experience join our team and advise us on the next stage of our growth is invaluable. We're confident not only of achieving our immediate goals thanks to this recent transaction but also exceeding our long-term ambitions."
Johan Englund, Industrifonden Investment Manager, said, "We're glad to welcome Oxx to the Apica-team. Apica is at a very exciting stage with its strong team and product offering, and is well positioned for further growth and expansion."
Kristina Söderberg, SEB Venture Capital Investment Manager, said, "Apica has a great position in a worldwide market and we are very happy to be backing the company and its competent, hard-working team. With another strong and experienced investor on board, we very much look forward to continuing to support and grow Apica together."
Notes to Editors
For further information about Oxx, please click here.
About Apica
Leading enterprises rely on the Apica Web Excellence Suite to test and monitor their mission critical business systems, APIs, web and mobile applications. Apica enables businesses to get detailed real-time performance, uptime and capacity insights, ensuring outstanding end user experience and optimized IT operations. Apica's suite - available as SaaS, on-premise and hybrid solutions - is trusted by 400+ leading brands globally. Apica has offices in Stockholm, New York, London and Santa Monica. To learn more about Apica, visit http://www.apicasystems.com.
@apicasystems
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