The San Diego private equity firm TVC Capital specializes in software deals, but TVC is not a venture investor.
TVC says it invests in high-growth companies with untapped potential. You could say that Jeb Spencer, TVC’s co-founder and managing partner, views prospective early stage deals in the white-hot consumer Web sector as all sizzle and no steak. As Spencer has explained through the years, he prefers to make investments in software deals that are all steak and no sizzle—or maybe a little sizzle, but not too much.
As an example, Spencer points to Centage, a software company based in Natick, MA, that has developed Budget Maestro—budgeting and forecasting software designed for small and medium-sized businesses. In a statement going out Wednesday, Centage says it has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding from TVC Capital and Northgate Capital, a global private equity and venture investor based in Danville, CA.
Spencer calls it a “classic” investment for TVC—an under-the-radar company in a segment known as enterprise performance management. Since 2001, when it was founded, Centage says it has funded its growth chiefly from sales revenue—with “minimal” outside funding and no venture capital.
A Centage spokesman says the company also has managed to hold its own against better-funded rivals like Mountain View, CA-based Adaptive Planning, which has raised a total of $84.5 million in venture funding, and Redwood City, CA-based Host Analytics, which has raised nearly $61 million in VC funding.
Adaptive Planning and Host Analytics already have moved into the cloud, offering their software as a service (SaaS) for budgeting, financial planning, consolidation, reporting and analytics. With the $9.5 million infusion from TVC and Northgate, Centage plans to likewise move into
