MVP raises funds to assist risk management firms

MCLEAN, Va.--Monumental Venture Partners will raise $75 million for early stage IT companies, such as enterprise risk management software firms throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The firm plans to close its private round of funding by the middle of next year. Roland Oliver, MVP president, estimated that 25-to-40 percent of the investment pool could go to security applications and will assist about 12 to 15 companies. MVP has watched enterprise risk management software companies gain momentum in public and private markets, prompting it to invest in this market. "There is a much higher awareness of the vulnerability of physical infrastructure," Oliver said. "You are going to find a blending reality that you should be just as concerned about industrial accidents or natural disasters as physical security. Risk management is the broader definition of security." Oliver launched MVP in early 1999 to provide capital and business development assistance to the wireless telecommunications and information technology industries. Current investments include Herndon, Va.-based Digital Sandbox, a company that implements fully operational terrorism risk management solutions. The solutions include tailored risk management strategies for organizations, as well as software that offers data collection, analysis, sharing and reporting and physical assets. The firm exits include Telverse, a VoIP service that sold for $30 million in stock to Level 3 Communications in 2003, Oliver noted. The venture capital firm takes a broad interpretation of security when backing companies. "Fifty percent of our portfolio is security-related," he said. Companies on the edge of the security market, such as those offering commercial software products, hardware, or software related to Internet-based communications, could also be awarded funding.