November 30, 2009
YottaMark Closes Series C Funding; Adds Produce and Supply Chain Veterans to Management Team
Company expands staff and invests in enhanced features of
the HarvestMark® solution for fresh food traceability
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
company's 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.
"We've 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. I'm 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 bachelor's 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 company's video, music, and software
copy protection and licensing businesses. He holds an MBA from
Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in business
administration from Wayne State University.
Laurence will lead YottaMark's 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 company's history. Laurence
received his MBA with distinction in operations and technology
management from The Anderson School of Business at UCLA and a
bachelor's degree in economics and international relations from
Princeton University.
About YottaMark, Inc. YottaMark, Inc. specializes
in product traceability and authentication solutions that deliver
valuable business intelligence when and where it's needed. Leading
companies in the fresh foods, electronics and consumer goods
industries rely on YottaMark's robust traceability platform to
conduct precise trace back, enhance communication, and increase
security in their supply chain.
HarvestMark®, the fresh food traceability solution from YottaMark,
is the industry's fastest growing traceability application. To
date, over a billion produce packages have been enabled with
HarvestMark codes to speed response to suspected recall events and
deliver on-demand product information throughout the supply chain.
Designed for field- and line-packed produce, HarvestMark offers a
complete suite of traceability solutions, including case and
item-level. It accommodates a wide range of workflows with an open
platform for seamless integration with existing systems.
HarvestMark supports a variety of packaging formats making it quick
to deploy with no interruption to business operations.
YottaMark is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood
City, Calif. More information can be found at www.YottaMark.com and www.HarvestMark.com.
Press contact:
Miz Nakajima
mnakajima@YottaMark.com
503-997-6045
