Nimble wants to focus on product, not funding

When a start-up is able to draw new investors into its fold, it usually validates the technology, product or service it is developing.

But Nimble Technology, which is announcing today that it has raised $8 million, but only from its original investors, is saying its inability to lure new investors is more a reflection of the economic slowdown than the company's overall health.

"In this market today, while a few things are getting done, the climate is very different," said Alex Knight, managing partner at Arch Venture Partners' Seattle office. "It's really tough to raise external money, and you have to ask does it make sense to have management folks focus on fund raising?"

Madrona Venture Group, Arch Venture and NeoCarta Ventures participated in the round.

Recently, entrepreneurs and chief executive officers have spent weeks at a time answering the questions of just one venture-capital company, and Knight said he would prefer that Nimble focus on launching its first software product as planned in mid-September.

And instead of proving the company through gaining investors, Nimble hopes to get verification by gaining revenues and customers, said Nimble's Chief Executive Suzan DelBene.

"We are very far along after just two years of developing our technology," DelBene said. "It's just a hard time in fund raising. It has nothing to do with what stage we are in. It has to do with economy."

DelBene said the investment will give the company a chance to turn some of the testers of early versions of its software, like Paccar, into paying customers. The software integrates large databases that are not normally compatible and compiles the information onto one platform through the use of XML technology, a universal code or development language.

DelBene expects the money raised today to run out sometime next year, and the company will be forced to again look for options. Knight and DelBene both hinted at the possibility of a strategic partner to fill that role. Since the company's inception two years ago, Nimble has raised $25 million.

Tricia Duryee can be reached at 206-464-3283 or tduryee@seattletimes.com.

Information in this article, originally published August 28, was corrected August 29. Suzan DelBene is the chief executive officer of Nimble Technology. Her name was misspelled in a previous version of this article.