San Francisco, California start-up Reef launched itself onto the market yesterday with $13m in first-round funding and a series of web applications which the company says integrate the multiple aspects of e-commerce web site development into one suite of customizable applications.
Traditionally, says CEO and president Philippe Brawerman, companies have had to put their web sites together using point products, which costs more time and money and are harder to implement and integrate. But according to Brawerman, Reef’s application suite, Internetware, encompasses all the elements – online publishing and content brokering, media asset management, business process re-engineering, and community building – companies need in one integrated, but modular package. The individual applications – Reef Commerce, Publisher, Forum, MediaCatalog, Tribe Manager and Form Manager – are tightly integrated on top of Reef’s application server engine.
Until now, companies wanting to transition to e-business have had to rely on a patchwork of different solutions. These are usually based on proprietary technologies, provide low flexibility, are costly to deploy and require a high level of user training, said Cecile Feront, Reef co-founder and VP of marketing. Reef meets this market challenge by delivering an open, integrated application set that enables total business management via a simple internet browser.
Brawerman says that Reef is making that management even more simple by making the applications available as a hosted offering over the internet for $700 a month. At the moment, the company has signed two partnerships, with UUNet and Worldcom, to host Internetware but the CEO says more are to follow, with other ASPs, ISPs and web and system integrator partners. If companies wish to purchase Internetware and manage it themselves, the engine costs $30,000 while the applications range from $5,000 to $15,000.
He added that Reef will use the $13m from Cisco Systems Inc, Viventures and Net Fund Europe, to help build out its sales and marketing department. The company also plans to open four or five new US offices within the next six months.
