Our Strategy in Action

The best evidence of the value of our connections comes from the experience of our portfolio companies, including:

Financial Engines

In 2003, FTVentures worked extensively with Financial Engines, a growth capital investment, to redefine and deploy major modifications in the business model and strategic direction of the company. With FTVentures' guidance, the company recognized the need to build on the success of its retirement plan investment advisory services in order to further employee adoption and drive customer retention at key accounts. Led by FTVentures' representative on the Board, Financial Engines successfully transitioned its primary business to offer comprehensive asset management services in order to increase penetration of defined contribution plans sponsored by large US corporations. Since introducing its 401(k) asset management service in September 2004, Financial Engines has deployed its offering at some of the largest employers in the world and has grown assets under management in managed accounts to more than $15 billion as of November 6, 2007.

KVS

At the 2002 FTVentures Annual Partner Conference, our strategic investors helped identify the large and rapidly growing need for email storage, archiving, and retrieval. Our investment team performed an extensive analysis of the market space and evaluated relevant vendors, tapping into market knowledge provided by the strategic investors to expand their own findings. The results of this investigation were incorporated in a "market map" which was shared with the Global Partner Network. The team identified U.K.-based K Vault Systems ("KVS") as a market leader with a compelling product and technology offering. The financial services vertical was a critical customer target for KVS; the company was therefore also highly attracted to FTVentures as an investment partner.

Strategic investors contributed to the diligence process through their appropriate operating managers with email storage, archiving and retrieval responsibilities, thus providing the investment team with a streamlined, yet thorough understanding of the opportunity. In August 2003 FTVentures made a growth capital investment in KVS. We remained actively involved with a board seat, introducing KVS to potential customers in the Global Partner Network (which resulted in six significant commercial relationships) and leveraging the experience of the investment team in preparing the company for acquisition. In September 2004, VERITAS Software purchased KVS for $225 million, representing a significant return for management and our investors on FTVentures' investment in 13 months.

Mavent

In 2003, FTVentures collaborated with 17 leading mortgage originators to develop a thorough understanding of compliance with local, state and federal laws in the mortgage industry. These 17 industry leaders played a major role in shaping the investment thesis that mortgage compliance was highly inefficient; they were essential to the diligence process in evaluating investment opportunities. They provided detailed information on business and operating needs, helped assess key drivers and evaluated solutions under consideration, ultimately helping to select Mavent, which offers automated mortgage compliance services, for a growth capital investment.

Actimize

Prior to our investment in Actimize, we worked closely with members of our Global Partner Network to understand the impact of changing anti-money laundering regulations and the need for improved solutions. After an extensive review of the market, we invested in Actimize, a provider of operational risk management enterprise solutions for financial institutions, in January 2004. The FTVentures team worked closely with Actimize management to identify important risk management executives across the financial services industry. Tapping into our Global Partner Network, FTVentures was able to connect Actimize with many of these industry decision-makers, leading to important commercial relationships with 10 of our strategic investors, resulting in significant revenue and market traction, helping propel Actimize into a market leadership position. Actimize was acquired by NICE Systems (NASDAQ: NICE) in July 2007 for approximately $280 million.