Jason Martin is the Managing Director of Argonaut Private Equity, recent investors in Cordys.  Here we find out what drove Argonaut to make such a substantial investment in Cordys and how Argonaut sees the partnership working.

What do you see as the key strengths of Argonaut Private Equity’s approach to technology investments?

As the investment arm of a very wealthy individual, Argonaut Private Equity is in the privileged position of being able to take a longer term view of its investments.

The company invests primarily in technology-related industries and currently has a portfolio comprising over 35 companies in sectors that include life-sciences, telecommunications, consumer electronics and software, mainly in the US, Australia, Israel, India and the Netherlands.

As a relatively small company, Argonaut is also fortunate in that we can make decisions and act on those decisions very quickly.  This is key in getting into the right deals at the right time.

How did Argonaut first discover Cordys?

Cordys was first brought to our attention by Matt Bross, Chief Technology Officer at BT.  He was very exited about the platform and so we began to investigate Cordys further.

Matt Bross is of course extremely well-versed in SOA – BT has been working with SOA principles since 2001 and the company’s Matrix Platform Architecture is one of the most sophisticated and advanced SOA implementations in the world.

How does Argonaut evaluate whether to invest, and indeed how much to invest?

Argonaut’s approach is to identify unique technologies that show strong potential for growth in emerging market sectors. 

We evaluate investments on three levels.

Firstly, the size of the market opportunity is a key factor. In Cordys' case we found there was huge potential for BPMS, and found the Cordys technology to be unique and with great potential in that market.

Secondly, we validate the technology and its potential with existing customers and indeed, others in the industry. In Cordys' case, we found that the expectations of existing customers were often being exceeded and also that a number of potential customers were giving positive initial feedback on the platform.

Finally, we assess the strength of the management team.  Again, in Cordys we found a strong and ambitious management team with excellent credentials and an outstanding track record of success.

As part of the due diligence process, we also visited Cordys’ R&D Center in Hyderabad, India.  What we found was a world-class development team, using the very latest techniques to deliver an extremely high quality product. 

We concluded that Cordys was probably the best company in a very hot market – which made the decision to make a substantial investment relatively easy.

How will Argonaut be working with Cordys to help achieve its ambitions?

Argonaut looks for companies that have good technology, good management and great potential.  We see our role as enablers – so we provide the funds to help companies achieve the potential they already demonstrate.  As such, we don’t go into companies and make wholesale changes.

I will join Cordys' Non-Executive Board and provide as much support as I can in driving up market presence for Cordys in the US, Germany and UK. Cordys meanwhile will continue to focus on what it does best - help companies to solve their pain and streamline their business processes.