Centric Lands $7.5 Million in Venture Capital
Centric Software announced a deal that closed on $7.5 million in venture-capital funding that has been earmarked to “fuel ongoing product- and business-development efforts,” said Chief Executive Officer Chris Grove in a statement.
Centric plans to create more product lifecycle management functionality, add mobile capabilities, grow its luxury-sector solutions, and expand its presence in New York, France, Italy and the United Kingdom via dedicated resources and subsidiaries.
Oak Investment Partners led the funding round for the Campbell, Calif.–based provider of PLM solutions, with support from MastheadVenture Partners and ABS Ventures.
The mobile-app market, PLM market and luxury sector continue on a path of rapid growth, Groves said. “We are excited about the market opportunity to extend our PLM product leadership for fast-moving consumer- goods companies and to expand our corporate presence in the luxury and fashion centers of North America and Europe.”
Centric has introduced the Centric 8Collection Book for Fashion iPad app, an interactive, patent-pending mobile app that replaces paper lookbooks with an electronic version that directly links data from the Centric 8 PLM system to customers through an interactive mobile device. A second mobile app allows users of Centric’s PLM software to use a smart phone to upload images directly to the database for a variety of purposes. To maintain the mobile-app momentum, Centric has hired a five-person team of programmers dedicated to mobile applications.
“Centric has proven that its Centric 8 application suite is unique and compelling in the fashion and consumer-goods markets,” said Bandel Carano, managing partner at Oak Investment Partners. —Erin Barajas
