Paris-based SLP Infoware has begun 1998 with $7.1m (FF 42.8m) in new financing from U.S. and European investors, and a new strategy, reports Les Echos. The new investors are Don Lucas & Associates ($2.5m), Insight Group (already a shareholder; $6m), Utrecht-based venture capitalist Gilde Investment Management and PER Holding in Luxembourg. Don Lucas invests in two or three companies per year, most of which are American, but he was impressed with SLP’s technological advance, said Michel Rocher, SLP managing director since the end of last year, and founder of French investment fund RSA Associates. SLP intends to use half the money to eliminate the debts of its US operations, which had seen its revenues stagnate at approximately $3.5m. The other half will go to an aggressive marketing of its newest product Churn/CPS, an application that uses SLP’s technology to help telecoms companies predict and prevent customer attrition via detailed analyses of customer bills. The system is already used by Bouygues Telecom, has been tested by three other operators and SLP says it has a dozen prospects.
