SAP Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of the German enterprise software company, has agreed its first investment in Latin America.
SAP Ventures led the $12m, fourth-round funding for Brazil-based Spring Wireless as a new investor. The venture arm of US bank Goldman Sachs and venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) reinvested after Spring raised a $56m series C round at a $110 million pre-money valuation in 2008, according to news provider pehub.com.
Doug Higgins, California-based partner at SAP Ventures, which has made more than 75 investments primarily in North America, Europe and India, said: "Spring Wireless’ track record in delivering robust software to some of the largest global companies in multiple verticals was a key factor in our decision to invest in the company."
Spring acts as the single point of contact in deploying, implementing and managing software across multiple devices and operating systems and has more than 330,000 enterprise users within over 450 companies around the world, including consumer goods companies Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kellogg’s, P&G, Kraft Foods and banks Citibank and Santander.
Patrick Kerins, chairman of Spring Wireless and general partner of NEA, said: "We welcome SAP Ventures as an investor as we continue to extend Spring’s global reach."
Marcelo Conde, founder and chief strategic officer of Spring, said: "Mobility is quickly becoming an imperative in the enterprise market, as business cycles shrink and as the real-time enterprise emerges. Spring Wireless’ involvement within the SAP ecosystem can be a catalyst to this industry transformation."