BizTone.Com gets US$5.5m in funding
By Julian Matthews
Friday, November 12 1999

KUALA LUMPUR--Malaysian-based Java developer BizTone.com has received its largest venture capital injection to date--US$5.5 million led by the Asia Java Fund, global investment firm ING-Barings, and angel investors in US and Asia.

The second round of investment brings total investment to about US$8 million, says chief executive Darryl Carlton whose company was among the first recipients of the Sun Microsystems-founded Asia Java Fund announced last week.

"The funding is an important recognition that BizTone.com's business model of 'renting software' over the Net is the new wave of the future. It will be instrumental for our market entry," said Carlton, who confirmed that a listing on Nasdaq is on schedule for next year.

Carlton said its early investor Japanese venture capital firm Nomura/JAFCO Investment (Asia) Ltd (NJI) remains "an existing and committed investor" and will continue to support the company via the Asia Java Fund.

BizTone is pioneering the delivery of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software as a pay-per-use service over the Internet and counts broadband network Singapore ONE as a client.

"The advantage of BizTone is that it's just like electricity or water, available to your business all the time and you simply pay for what you use on a transaction basis, while someone else makes sure you get the service around the clock," said Carlton.

In July, to gain market share, BizTone launched its first product BizTone Financials v1.1 for free if clients signed up for three years. The product offers general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, procurement, and sales tracking and is currently available both in English and Chinese.

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