Glenn Drexhage

A local software company that's refocused on a new market has landed its third round of venture capital and revealed a customer win.

On Monday, Antarctica Systems Inc. announced a financing worth $4.7 million.

In its previous two rounds, Antarctica - founded in 1999 by local tech luminary Tim Bray - raised about $4.5 million in venture funding.

This current round featured follow-on investments from three firms: Vancouver's GrowthWorks Ltd., BDC Venture Capital and RBC Capital Partners.

Two new venture players also joined this time around - Calgary's SpringBank TechVentures and Greenstone Venture Partners, another local investor.

The money will be used to expand Antarctica's sales and marketing force and enhance its product offering.

Barry Yates, Antarctica's president and CEO, said it took about six months to complete the deal. The process included discussions with some U.S. venture firms.

"It wasn't too bad - it took a little bit longer than I think we all thought," he said.

Yates, 38, came on board as chief executive in 2002. He replaced Bray, who moved to the role of chief technology officer at the time.

Earlier this year, Bray, who wrote the company's initial software, moved to tech giant Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW: Nasdaq).

Bray remains an observer on Antarctica's board of directors. He's also an adviser to the company and one of its larger shareholders.

Close to a year ago, Antarctica targeted is visualization software, called Visual Net, solely on the business intelligence market.

That segment, sometimes referred to as business performance management, aims to help companies sift through reams of information in a way that allows them to improve their decision-making - or, as Yates said, it's about "spending a lot less time doing analysis and spending more time taking action."

Visual Net fits into the mix by presenting large amounts of data in a user-friendly visual format, analogous to a map. Users can drill down for more detailed information.

Before taking the new direction, the company had focused its software more on search-oriented applications. Although the technology was lauded, there were concerns.

"I think it's fair to say that there wasn't as much of a market interest for it," Yates said.

"The reaction from a lot of folks was very interesting technology, but not really compelling enough for them to purchase it or to license the technology."

But Yates is now bullish about the company's commercial prospects.

"Since we've done somewhat of a restart and refocused the company, [the] revenue side has gone extremely well. And the prospects look extremely positive on that front."

Indeed, he said Antarctica's enjoying triple-digit revenue growth. However, he would not provide any figures.

Yates also predicted that the company will be profitable by the end of its current fiscal year, which arrives next June.

He said the company has about 25 customers, most of which are American. Last week, Antarctica announced its latest client, Chicago's DePaul University, the largest Catholic university in the U.S.

The firm is focusing its efforts on two areas: the U.S. federal government and the wholesale distribution market. Antarctica has about 27 employees, including close to 20 in Vancouver. Yates said he's aiming to boost his firm's roster to about 50 by the end of the fiscal year.

Livia Mahler, a partner at Greenstone, said her firm invested $750,000 in Antarctica. She cited a few factors for Greenstone's involvement, including a strong product, an experienced management team and Vancouver's strong business intelligence reputation due largely to the legacy of Crystal Decisions Inc. Crystal, at one time the Lower Mainland's biggest software company, was bought last year for about US$1.2 billion by Franco-U.S. firm Business Objects (BOBJ: Nasdaq).

"We have the best business intelligence story here, which we would hope to repeat," Mahler said.