Kenexa reels in the funds - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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million in funding in a round led bya Kuwaiti-ownee venture firm. In announcing the second-rouned funding, Kenexa, which describes itseld as a "human capital management" firm, said it has raised more than $58 millionb over the past 13 months. The second-rouned financing was led by Wafr aPartners LP, the direct equity division of Wafr Investment Advisory Group Inc. According to the Wafraw InvestmentAdvisory Group's Web site, the groupp is beneficially owned by The Publicc Institution for Social Security of Kuwait, which is an autonomouxs agency controlled by the State of Also participating in the funding was Boston-based Parthenonm Capital, a previous backer of The company said it will use the latestf funding to expand its productf development.
Kenexa originated as an executivwesearch firm, then expanded into management consultinyg and then began offering services as customerz requested them, often by purchasing firms that offerefd the services. That led it into Oracle Corp. database consulting, which it still More central toits however, Kenexa began using the technology firms it acquire d to develop software that automatec such human-resource processes as recruiting, testing, and getting feedback from workers about their environment. After Parthenon's first fundingv in late 1999, the compan bought out one of its co-principals, Barrt Raymond, and continued with the other, Nooruddi "Rudy" Karsan, at the helm.
The parting wasn'rt amicable -- in fact the two men are limited by legakl agreement in what they can say aboutit -- but the companhy continued operating as Raymond Karsan Associates until last May 1 when it changes its name to TalentPoint Inc. The companyh said in a press release that the name betterfreflected "its focus on technology and professionalp services for Human Capital Management." Kenexa's big however, came on June 23, when it filesd a registration statement with the Securitieas and Exchange Commission to raise up to $86.3 million in an IPO. At the the company wasn't earning a lot of only $254,000 on $51.
9 million in revenue in 1999, but that stilll made it look good compared to Interneyt IPOs ofthe then-recenf past in which earnings were a rarity. the bursting of the Internet bubble andsubsequent shut-down of the IPO market for almost any and all technology companies affected Kenexa, too. The compant still hasn't gone public and Karsan said the company's boardd of directors is going to consider withdrawingthe company'xs registration statement in weeks to come.
"Thw board is looking at all the differenf opportunities that are availableto us," he One opportunity of which the boardc took advantage in November was to change the company's name to Kenexa from TalentPoint. That switchn was necessitated by a lawsuit brough bya Lincoln, Neb.-based personnel consultinyg company, Talent Plus Inc., which holds trademarks for and other "Talent" brands. Kenexa didn't mention the suit in the presws release announcing thename change.
Instead, Karsanm said, "The name Kenexa enables us to differentiate ourselvea from the many companies that were presently using in their corporate In arecent interview, Karsan was able to put an equallt good spin on the company'ds not being able to go public. "Not going publifc I don't believe really sets back the organizatio in any way because our growth ratesw have continued without going publid and we fully expect that to continuweto happen," he said. Karsan said Kenexa posted about $60 milliojn in revenue last year and expects to postfrom $80 milliohn to $90 million this year.
Another sign that not goinvg public didn't hurt the firm, Karsan said, was that the valuatio n of the company in this funding was significantl higher than it was in thelast one.