Empresas y finanzas

Online Manufacturing Marketplace MFG.com Receives $26 Million Investment Led by Fidelity Ventures and Fidelity Asia Ventures



    MFG.com, Inc., the largest global online marketplace for the
    manufacturing community, today announced that it has received $26
    million in financing. The investment was led by Fidelity Ventures and
    Fidelity Asia Ventures, with an additional contribution by existing
    investor European Founders Fund (EFF). The funds will be utilized for
    MFG.com´s continued global expansion, technology development, creation
    of innovative new online services and potential acquisitions.

    MFG.com also announced that Fidelity Ventures partner, Larry
    Cheng, has joined its Board of Directors. Cheng joins current board
    members Mitch Free, CEO and Founder of MFG.com and Steve Campbell,
    Chief Investment Officer, Bezos Expeditions (a private investment firm
    of Jeff Bezos). In addition, Fidelity Asia Ventures managing partner,
    Daniel Auerbach, has joined as a board observer.

    "The manufacturing industry is one of the world´s largest vertical
    markets and represents a high potential market for a B-to-B
    marketplace because of its size, inherent globalization and
    fragmentation," said Cheng who currently serves on the boards of
    Prosper, eCredit, mindSHIFT Technologies and as a board observer on
    The New Orleans Exchange. "MFG.com has demonstrated strong historical
    growth and built a world-class platform that we are confident
    positions them to further capitalize on the converging trends that are
    transforming the manufacturing industry: accelerated globalization and
    increased Internet utilization."

    The MFG.com marketplace facilitates billions of dollars in
    manufacturing transactions annually by connecting buyers and suppliers
    of manufactured products around the world. With offices in North
    America, Europe and Asia, MFG.com supports 10 languages and 12
    currencies allowing its members to connect instantly without
    geographical or technological barriers.

    "Not only does MFG.com´s proprietary on-demand technology
    streamline the complex process of sourcing and selling manufacturing
    services, it also intelligently connects buyers and sellers from
    around the world while providing an unparalleled approach to
    intellectual property protection online," said Auerbach, who currently
    serves on the boards of Danji Technology Holdings Ltd and UIM Holdings
    and served on the boards of some of China´s most recognized companies
    including AsiaInfo (NASDAQ: ASIA), Hurray Holdings (NASDAQ: HRAY),
    Wuxi Pharmatech (NYSE: WX), and since its early beginnings, The
    Alibaba Group holding company that includes the leading B-to-B
    e-commerce company in China which recently launched a very successful
    IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (Alibaba.com: Ticker # 1688). "The
    success MFG.com has achieved in China just a year after establishing
    its office in Shanghai will help pave the way for future geographic
    expansion and overall business growth as the leading online
    manufacturing platform."

    Since its founding in 2000, MFG.com has scaled to be the largest
    online manufacturing marketplace in the world. In 2006, the company
    acquired Geneva-based SourcingParts.com. Together, the strategic
    combination has already helped MFG.com achieve a critical mass of over
    100,000 registered buyers and suppliers that have adopted the platform
    as their preferred way of doing business. Every minute of every day,
    buyers and suppliers of manufacturing services and industrial products
    from all corners of the globe are connecting online at MFG.com and
    conducting business. The manufacturing industry is a truly global
    ecosystem and the MFG.com platform has been designed to facilitate
    global trade, multiple languages, multiple currencies and has elegant
    solutions to address intellectual property concerns making sourcing
    online more secure than traditional methods.

    "Our continued global growth was not dependent on raising
    additional capital, particularly given the profitability of our core
    business and the commitment of our existing investors Bezos
    Expeditions and European Founders Fund," explained MFG.com Founder and
    CEO Mitch Free. "However, we were particularly impressed with the
    strategic value that Fidelity Ventures´ and Fidelity Asia Ventures´
    could offer based on their domain expertise and global reach, as
    evidenced by their successful investments in other online B-to-B
    marketplaces, including Alibaba.com. Their investment and involvement
    in MFG.com will further accelerate MFG.com along the path of becoming
    the dominant platform upon which the world´s manufacturing community
    conducts business."

    About MFG.com

    MFG.com is the largest global online marketplace for the
    manufacturing industry. MFG.com instantly and intelligently matches
    sourcing professionals and engineers with suppliers who have the right
    expertise and capacity to manufacture parts and tooling on demand in
    accordance with their engineering drawings and CAD files. MFG.com´s
    on-demand service is consolidating the once- fragmented world of
    manufacturing into an efficient marketplace, enabling products to be
    sourced and built more easily, quickly, inexpensively, and at higher
    quality levels. For more information, please visit:
    http://www.MFG.com.

    About Fidelity Ventures

    Fidelity Ventures invests in companies ready to enter the market
    and those poised for the next phase of growth. Its 40-year track
    record includes hundreds of successful investments in the consumer,
    communications, systems and software markets. Fidelity Ventures is
    distinguished by the ability to accelerate market adoption for its
    portfolio companies´ offerings, and by a global network of senior
    technology and business executives. Fidelity Ventures actively manages
    over $800 million from offices in Boston and London. For more
    information, please visit: www.fidelityventures.com.

    About Fidelity Asia Ventures

    Fidelity Asia Ventures (FAV) is the Asian venture and growth
    capital arm of Fidelity International Ltd., (FIL) a part of the global
    Fidelity investment organization. FAV remains focused on delivering
    relevant global resources to each company with whom it partners FAV is
    among the earliest and most successful institutional investors in
    private, growth companies in China and has actively invested
    predominantly FIL proprietary capital in both the information
    technology and healthcare sectors throughout Asia for nearly 14 years,
    with a longstanding focus on China. More recently it has established a
    substantial capital pool for investment in growing private companies
    in India. FAV´s current mission is to invest principally in
    high-quality, high-growth companies broadly in the information
    technology, healthcare and consumer sectors in China and India. FAV´s
    investment teams in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Mumbai are among
    the most experienced in the Asia-Pacific region. For more information,
    please visit: http://www.fidelityasiaventures.com.