ShotSpotter Secures Growth Investment from Lauder Partners, Names James G. Beldock Chairman and CEO
Mountain View, CA – March 30, 2004 — ShotSpotter, Inc., the country's leading developer of gunshot location systems and technology, announced today that it has secured an investment from Lauder Partners, LLP, the Silicon Valley venture capital fund. In association with the investment transaction, it has named James G. Beldock its chairman and CEO and Gary Lauder, managing director of Lauder Partners as a director.
"We are excited to have a venture capitalist of this experience backing our company, and equally glad that his involvement led to James' agreeing to become our new CEO," commented Dr. Robert L. Showen, the company's founder and chief scientist. Dr. Showen will retain his title as president. "I've wanted to refocus my activities on the science behind ShotSpotter's technology, and this financing and new leadership will allow me to do that."
"Since ShotSpotter is already profitable," said Mr. Beldock, "we have the luxury of applying the investment toward the pursuit of several critical R&D objectives, while maintaining the fiscal discipline which has helped us build our business to where it is today. I am personally very excited to expand my role with the company, and I look forward to leading ShotSpotter through its current and future growth."
"I have been informally involved with ShotSpotter for more than two years now," commented Gary Lauder, referring in part to his role in helping the company recruit Mr. Beldock nine months ago. "I'm happy to be more formally involved now."
The company will use proceeds from the investment to complete R&D on its next generation "rapid deployment" system, which it expects to bring to market in the third quarter of this year, as well as to further its existing military and law enforcement R&D programs.
Mr. Beldock was president and CEO and later chairman and CTO of WebPutty, Inc., an enterprise software company for which he raised in excess of $30m from Bain Capital and other investors. He was also president and CEO of Cogito Software, Inc which delivered software to such clients as Princeton University and affiliates of New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center. Previously Mr. Beldock was vice president for Research and Development and CTO of Primavera Laboratories, Inc. where his purview included products producing revenue in excess of $300m for clients such as Avon Products, Inc., Bath & Body Works, Inc., and Bristol-Myers Squibb, Inc. Mr. Beldock holds patents in the fields of computer hardware, computer software and Internet security. A regular speaker at Comdex, BusinessWeek Forums and at Microsoft, he is a graduate of Yale University and a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.
About ShotSpotter, Inc., (www.shotspotter.com)
ShotSpotter, Inc., the leading developer of gunshot location systems and technology, is based in Santa Clara, CA. ShotSpotter’s flagship product, which detects gunfire across large urban areas using a small number of inexpensive and easy-to-deploy sensors, currently protects the citizens of cities nationwide, from Los Angeles, CA to Washington, DC. Its products recently assisted the FBI and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in identifying and capturing the Columbus, OH highway sniper suspect. In 2000, ShotSpotter was honored for its technology vision and leadership when got won the Computerworld Smithsonian Laureate Award, having been nominated by William H. Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, and the Smithsonian added its technology to the museum’s permanent collection. With technology covered by numerous patents, the company also offers products to the law enforcement, homeland security and military markets. ShotSpotter technology has consistently produced arrests and weapons confiscations nationwide and has helped reduce gunfire and crime rates in cities that deploy it.
For more information, please contact
Gregg Rowland
Senior VP, Sales and Marketing
ShotSpotter, Inc.
Toll Free +1 (888) 274-6877 x219
Direct +1 (562) 650-2673
gregg@shotspotter.com