HarQen Raises $2.7MM for Next Generation Voice Platform

MILWAUKEE, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- HarQen, a leading platform developer powering asynchronous voice applications, announced today that they have completed their Series A financing. The Milwaukee-based company lists as its investors Phenomenelle Angels Fund, Silicon Pastures, Golden Seeds Angel Fund, Midwest Capital Fund, Wisconsin Investment Partners and several prominent individuals. The $2.7MM Series A investment follows a $750K Seed funding round completed in December 2007.

"This financing allows us expand our technical and sales teams," said E. Kelly Fitzsimmons, Co-founder and CEO of HarQen. "Our goal is to grow market share for our asynchronous voice applications and expand the reach of our platform via strategic partnerships."

"The Phenomenelle Angels Fund is pleased to lead the Series A and Seed investments in HarQen," said Lauren Flanagan, Managing Director, Phenomenelle Angels Fund and HarQen Chairman. "By capturing, sharing, and organizing dynamic voice assets, such as interviews, HarQen's platform preserves and monetizes person-to-person communications while allowing them to scale dramatically."

HarQen's breakout application, VoiceScreener™, is an HR solution that lets busy professionals use their phone and a simple web-based dashboard to create and distribute custom, recorded phone interviews. With VoiceScreener, recruiters are able to interview 3 times their normal volume of candidates per day while increasing the quality of the review process.

"Recruiting efficiently is a huge need in the market," commented Jim Estill, founder and former CEO of EMJ Data and current board member of Research in Motion (RIM), who invested through Golden Seeds.  "HarQen saves time and increases efficacy - exactly what is needed in a company."

"Golden Seeds chose to invest because of the combination of a strong entrepreneur, solving a real problem with a platform/application play that has a big market," commented Jo Anne Miller, founding leader of the Golden Seeds Angel Network -- San Francisco Forum.  Miller, who led the technical due diligence for Golden Seeds, is a former Bell Labs engineer, serial tech entrepreneur and now an early stage venture investor in the Bay Area.

"The promise of HarQen's platform is to help businesses expand and amplify the value of conversations well beyond the conversation itself," noted Fitzsimmons.  "Our vision has resonated well with both our clients and investors."

About HarQen

HarQen (pronounced HAR-ken) is a leading platform developer powering smart, easy-to-use voice applications that solve real world problems. HarQen's VoiceScreener is a game-changing way to interview candidates that is easily deployed and optimized for small businesses, yet scalable for large enterprises. More information is available at www.voicescreener.com.

About Phenomenelle Angels Fund

Phenomenelle Angels Fund I, LP is an early stage fund that invests in women and minority owned or managed businesses in Wisconsin and the Midwest. Phenomenelle invests in exceptional management teams that exploit proprietary technology to create breakthrough applications in the following market sectors: Information Technology, BioTechnology/Life Sciences, Clean Technology, Consumer Goods/Services and Communications. (www.phenomenellevc.com)

SOURCE HarQen