--- Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Two New Board Members At RFID Co. Reva Systems Make Small Investment
By Rizal Tupaz
8/16/2005
Reva Systems Corp., which provides enterprise architecture for radio frequency identification installations, has added two directors to its board: Gary Bowen and Devdutt Yellurkar. Both made small investments in the company.
Ashley Stephenson, chief executive of Reva Systems, said both Bowen and Yellurkar will be "given an opportunity to put their own money to work," though their investments in the company will "not be a significant source of funding."
The RFID industry is "doing fine in terms of investor interest," Stephenson noted. "Money's flowing into this sector from the venture community." RFID chip company Alien Technology Corp., for one, recently nabbed a healthy $66 million Series H round.
Stephenson said, "We're optimistic when we're ready for our next round."
Founded in 2004, the Chelmsford, Mass.-based company has raised more than $6 million in Series A money so far. It is funded equally by Charles River Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners.
Bowen's operational experience includes 13 years with Hewlett-Packard Co. where he held positions in engineering, sales and management. After Hewlett-Packard, he helped start two technology companies, Masscomp and Wellfleet Communications Inc. At Masscomp, he held senior management positions including general manager of the OEM systems group and executive vice president of sales, marketing and customer support. At Wellfleet, which later became Bay Networks Inc., he was the executive vice president of sales, marketing and customer support.
Yellurkar founded Yantra Corp., developer of software products and services for supply-chain management. Yellurkar grew Yantra from a venture-backed start-up to a software company with eight years of consecutive revenue growth. Yantra was recently acquired by SBC Communications Inc. for $170 million in cash. Prior to Yantra, Yellurkar was the senior vice president, sales and marketing for Infosys Technologies Ltd. where he built the field sales organization and led the company's sales growth from less than $1 million to profitability.
With a board that consists mainly of company management and representatives from the venture investors, the new appointments add sales and marketing and operational expertise to the Reva board, Stephenson said. The board now has six directors.
Reva's flagship Tag Acquisition Network product applies networking principles similar to those employed in local, wireless and storage area networks, integrating the RFID network as part of the enterprise infrastructure. It is a merger of networking and RFID, Stephenson explained. "If you listen to customer requests, they are more comfortable with deploying a well-tested piece of equipment rather than deploying hundreds of servers."
Reva's approach adds a networking perspective to RFID installations. The company says its platform is appropriate for applications in retail stores, distribution centers, manufacturing plants, hospitals, entertainment venues and government installations, among others.