IQMS taps venture heavyweights for capital infusion
Paso Robles-based software firm IQMS has taken an outside investment for the first time in its 25-year history, raising an undisclosed sum from the same financiers who have backed Faceook, Expedia and Netflix.
The company said Aug. 19 that Technology Crossover Ventures led the funding round with Banneker Partners participating. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Randy and Nancy Flamm retain “a big piece” of the company and will continue to oversee day-to-day operations, the company told the Business Times.
Founded in 1989, IQMS makes software that manufacturers use to plan and run factory operations. By integrating with hardware attached to machines on the shop floor, it has built up a specialty with customers whose products need to be highly traceable, such as automotive parts makers and medical device makers.
Between 2011 and 2013, revenue at IQMS grew 56 percent to $32.2 million. The new capital is earmarked to bolster the company’s sales efforts and product development and bring in guidance from Silicon Valley’s heavy hitters on how to grow even faster.
“We’ve always been very profitable — and are still very profitable — so we don’t need the money. But we need that expertise,” IQMS President Randy Flamm told the Business Times. “To get that expertise, I didn’t want to go to straight consultants because they don’t have any skin in the game.”
“With regulatory environments becoming stricter and need for more visibility on the shop floor rising, manufacturing customers view IQMS as an absolute necessity to remain competitive,” Stephen Davis, a managing partner at Banneker Partners, said in a news release.
IQMS has about 200 employees in North America, with 140 of them in Paso Robles. The company recently added a second building, which it financed with cash rather than debt, to the property it owns near the Paso Robles Airport. The two buildings total about 62,000 square feet, and the company has room for more structures on the property in the future.
