E6.5m put into ascertech AG

As a tellling illustration of how technology companies that deliver key operational services – such as billing management – to the IT sector can still raise funds even in today's icy climate, German software firm ascertech has raised E6.5m in a second round. Both DVC Deutsche Venture Capital, the private equity firm partnered with Deutsche Bank, and Accenture Technology Ventures, the private equity firm run by consulting firm Accenture [formerly Andersen Consulting] have invested.

ascertech has developed BillingWare, which tracks the actual usage of all applications and hardware devices in distributed networks and allocates costs to users according to actual consumption. Many IT departments in major companies, let alone ASPs supplying network services, have long struggled to find an accurate way of tracking usage and costs across a wide spectrum of users and user types. BillingWare is a solution to this problem.

Said Ingo Hirsch, investment manager with Deutsche Venture Capital: 'Providers of IT services can gain control of their cost accounting and trace back the costs arising to the actual source by using BillingWare, regardless whether the services offered are utilised by internal or external customers'.

Founded in 1996 as Internet Online AG and based in Cologne, ascertech's customers are major banks and insurance companies. The company already has revenues of E3m for its last financial year and is planning to use the investment to continue its penetration into the German market as well as to initiate an international roll-out of its products.