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On Friday, Norkom said that current investors Trinity Venture Capital, Island Capital, Goodbody Stockbrokers, Enterprise Ireland and the AIB IT Fund were close to committing fresh venture capital to the firm, which announced restructuring moves last month.
"Both the staff and shareholders of Norkom believe strongly in the potential of the company," said chief executive officer Paul Kerley in a statement. "Combined with our restructuring programme announced in July, this new funding will provide us with sufficient working capital to carry us through adverse market conditions for the next 18 months to 24 months."
In July the company said it would cut 12 jobs at its Dublin offices, bringing employment levels down to around 60. Those cuts included administration, sales and engineering staff and along with the job losses, the firm introduced other more general cost saving measures including reduced spending on marketing.
Norkom, which was established in 1998, specialises in analytical applications for CRM (customer relationship management) through a product line called Alchemist. The company also sells anti-money laundering and fraud management solutions. And despite the downturn, Norkom has managed to sign a few significant deals this year with firms such as Canadian Tire Financial Services, Guinness UDV, and US Cellular. The firm also ranked sixth in Deloitte & Touche's All-Ireland Fast 50 awards.
Indeed, Norkom was one of Ireland's brightest stars in the tech-boom of the late 1990's, but by the end of 2001 the company, like many others, was facing the realities of the tech fallout. Since it was established the company has raised over EUR35 million in venture capital and high profile entrepreneurs such as Denis O'Brien and Fran Rooney have invested.
The company was quickly tipped as an IPO candidate and was valued at more than USD220 million, according to some accounts, but the quickly deteriorating economy put it in a much more precarious situation for most of 2001 as it pared back employment numbers from a high of 200. For the year to March 2001, the company reported losses of EUR20 million for the year on revenues of just EUR9.6 million, according to official filings.
Now, however, Norkom seems to be past the worst of its troubles and for the fiscal year 2002, the company reported a reduced loss of around EUR5 million on revenues of EUR12.5 million. In fact in Friday's statement CEO Paul Kerley said that he expected the firm to return to profitability within the next three months.
"However, all technology companies face uncertain sales cycles in the current environment. We are taking a prudent and conservative view of the market going forward and in this venture capital round we are making sure that we have plenty of funding to secure us into the long term," he said.
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