Redwood City, Calif. Nov. 30, 2009 YottaMark, Inc., the leader in traceability and authentication solutions, announced today that it has closed $8 million in Series C funding and added three new senior executives to its management team. The investment round was led by Thomvest Ventures and included existing investors ATA Ventures and Granite Ventures LLC. The financing follows the companys rapid growth and adoption of its HarvestMark fresh food traceability solution by leading North American produce and food brands across a wide range of commodities.
With the closing of the Series C funding, YottaMark announced the addition of three new executives to the management team. Peter Townsend, former CIO at Driscoll Strawberry Associates, joined YottaMark as senior director of customer operations; Mark Belinsky joined the Company as senior vice president for corporate and business development; and Todd Laurence joined as vice president of sales. As part of the growth in the management team, Randall Freeman will take on a new and expanded role of vice president, strategic market development, focused on developing relationships across perishables categories. In their new positions, Townsend, Belinsky, Laurence, and Freeman will play critical roles in supporting the growing base of HarvestMark customers, in responding to the increasing demands for enhanced traceability, and in creating platforms for retailer and consumer engagement in the fresh food sector.
The HarvestMark family of products implements item-level and PTI-compliant labeling, speeds response to food safety issues, and creates new connections between brands and consumers. Grower-shippers, produce buyers, and consumers have instant and controlled access to trace-back, distribution details, quality data, and food safety information. This fall, the company released a new version of HarvestMark for the fresh-cut segment of the produce industry, which is currently being implemented with Fresh Selections by Kroger packaged salad.
Weve experienced tremendous growth over the past 18 months, said J. Scott Carr, president and CEO, YottaMark. New industry regulations, greater government focus on food safety, and growing consumer interest in knowing their food and their farmer have heightened the need for efficient and effective trace-back investigations and trace-forward operations. We are honored to have a strong and growing customer base. To date, our customers have used HarvestMark on more than a billion packages. In the coming year, we will expand our work with the produce grower-shipper community and help the industry address new PTI milestones, while developing new partnerships and strategic alliances to expand into related food segments. Im excited to work with this very talented group of executives as we strive to delight our customers and deliver valuable traceability solutions.
As senior director of customer operations, Townsend will be responsible for driving the reliable and scalable technology platform that supports the HarvestMark solution, and providing world-class support to HarvestMark customers. Prior to joining YottaMark, Townsend spent eight years at Driscoll’s leading their information technology team. In addition to running Driscoll’s IT, Townsend also served as the COO and a board member of the Produce Supplies Organization, which set industry-wide IT standards for produce companies, including traceability and data synchronization. He holds a bachelors degree in business administration from California State University at Sacramento.
As senior vice president for corporate and business development, Belinsky will be responsible for establishing strategic partnerships and driving expansion of HarvestMark and YottaMark products into adjacent market segments and new geographies. Belinsky brings to YottaMark more than 25 years of experience successfully growing companies from under $10 million to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. During this period, he has served in various marketing and sales roles at companies including Unisoft, Supermac Software, and Interop. In 1995, he joined Macrovision where he served for over eight years in executive management positions for the companys video, music, and software copy protection and licensing businesses. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and a bachelors degree in business administration from Wayne State University.
Laurence will lead YottaMarks North American sales operation as vice president of sales. He brings to YottaMark over 20 years of experience in enterprise software sales, supply chain management, and professional services. Prior to YottaMark, Laurence was with i2 Technologies, a provider of advanced supply chain software, where he held a variety of sales leadership roles, including managing sales teams across North America and Europe for the retail and consumer industries business unit. Key customers included grocery retailers, wholesale food distributors, and consumer packaged goods companies. Previously, he served as a director of sales at Vivecon, a pioneering provider of on-demand software solutions to help companies manage risk and uncertainty in their supply chains. Laurence began his sales career at Oracle as a global accounts manager, where he sold the first multi-year, managed services, fully hosted enterprise ERP deal in the companys history. Laurence received his MBA with distinction in operations and technology management from The Anderson School of Business at UCLA and a bachelors degree in economics and international relations from Princeton University.
Source: YottaMark, Inc.