Evolve IP Raises $15.6M First Round From Individuals

by Timothy Hay, Dow Jones VentureWire

Evolve IP LLC, maker of a hosted application that helps businesses buy, manage and secure their communications systems, has closed a first institutional round of $15.6 million in equity financing.

Tom Gravina, chief executive of the Wayne, Pa.-based company, said four private investors co-led the round: Ira Lubert of Independence Capital Partners; Keystone Foods LLC Chairman Herb Lotman; Blackstone Group co-founder Pete Peterson; and Michael Forman, a managing partner at FB Capital Partners.

Evolve's founders, including Gravina, provided funding of about $1.5 million after the company was launched in 2006, Gravina said.

The current round will go toward a further build-out of Evolve's platform, the company said. Evolve combines hardware, software, bandwidth and network security into one hosted application, Gravina said.

"There's nobody out there doing that," Gravina said. "It's a technology change-in-the-landscape. It's faster, more efficient, more secure and more advanced."

Evolve's platform is designed to work in a number of areas, including Internet telephony, managed network services, security and compliance and hosted applications. The company's technology partners include Cisco Systems Inc., BroadSoft Inc. and IBM Corp.

Originally appearing in the Dow Jones VentureWire. Copyright © 2008 VentureWire.  All rights reserved.