Venture Capital firm recognizes the power of Cloud Computing
SONOMA, CA – Wine Management Systems, creators of the first production management software solution for wineries that operates entirely in the “cloud” of the internet, announced that is has received venture capital funding from outside its initial investor group.
“Lighter Capital is our first source of outside funding,” says CEO and Founder Patrick Oates. “We looked at traditional lines of credit and at VC firms that specialized in cloud-based companies, but Lighter Capital spoke our language, focusing more on our revenue stream than on fixed assets. We feel fortunate to have discovered this funding option and will recommend Lighter Capital to other SaaS companies serving the wine industry.”
The grape-to-glass winemaking and cellar management platform developed by Wine Management Systems (WMS) tracks all winery activities from vineyard to bottling. WMS also supports inventory management, wine club management, and synchronizing financial information to QuickBooks. By providing the solution as a service, its customers needn’t invest in expensive software packages; instead they only pay a small monthly subscription fee.
“WMS is a technology leader in the wine industry,” says Lighter Capital Vice President Molly Otter. “Its platform is easy to use and there’s not much of a learning curve for winemakers who start using their solution. Because it’s a cloud-based solution, winemakers at any time have ready access to the data that help them run their wineries efficiently so that they can focus on what they do best: craft delicious wines!”
The company intends to use the funding from Lighter Capital to hire additional sales help, increase its marketing budget, and diversify the product to also serve the micro-brewing industry and other verticals.
Wine Management Systems is one of the leading cloud-based providers of wine production and wine club software, helping small and medium-sized wineries better manage and track their winery operations. More information and a short demonstration video of the software can be found on the website at winemanagementsystems.com. More information about Lighter Capital can be found at lightercapital.com
