HyperQuality Secures $10 Million in Second Round Venture Financing

HyperQuality, Inc., the premier contact center quality assurance firm, recently announced it has secured a Series B venture capital financing investment of $10 million. Ignition Partners, based in Bellevue, Washington, is the lead investor; additional participation came from key, long-term investors Miramar Venture Partners, Rustic Canyon, and Divergent Ventures, all three of whom participated in the earlier Series A financing effort.

HyperQuality has extensive plans for the financing proceeds, including a major investment in new product development and technology; accelerating the expansion of the sales force; and further development of the company’s infrastructure to support the new growth. The company expects to leverage these and other enhancements into substantial new business from some of the world’s largest call centers, ultimately resulting in a projected revenue increase of 200% in 2007.

“As quality customer service and support become increasingly significant competitive differentiators, the contact center quality function will grow in importance,” said Jonathan Roberts, one of the founders of Ignition, a venture capital firm that invests in a variety of high-tech markets.

“With that as a backdrop, we believe that HyperQuality is poised for significant short- and long-term growth. Its impressive customer base and growth rate, along with its profitable track record make this a very sound investment.”

This new round of financing follows a $5.5 million lead investment from Miramar, Rustic, and Divergent in June 2005 to increase the momentum that HyperQuality had generated since its founding in 2003. As a result of that financing effort, HyperQuality almost tripled its client base, multiplied its employee base by 350%, and grew revenue by an impressive 250%.

Starting with its core business of evaluating telephone conversations, HyperQuality today evaluates hundred of thousands of telephone, email and chat interactions for mid–size to Fortune 1000 companies, as well as implements customer satisfaction surveys. Its services are utilized to improve the performance of more than 35,600 agents from 136 call centers, representing high-profile customers such as AOL, Allconnect, Carlson Leisure Travel Services, Covad, Lillian Vernon and Time Warner Cable.

“This is a particularly exciting transaction for HyperQuality,” said CEO Howard Lee. “Our first round of financing helped us generate significant momentum and bring a level of quality to call center monitoring that had not been previously available. Through this key financing, we will have the resources necessary to not only augment the level of service we provide to our clients, but to introduce new products and technology that will have a profound impact on the industry for years to come.”

“Our decision to make a second major investment in HyperQuality is a testament to our confidence in its methodology as well as the company’s market vision,” said Michael Song, one of the partners of Rustic Canyon, a leading venture capital firm with offices in Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Santa Monica. “The progress the company has demonstrated in the short time since the last round of financing has convinced us that HyperQuality is prepared to strengthen its grasp on its industry leadership position. There was no question that we wanted to be an integral part of that process.”

For more information, please visit www.hyperquality.com