SkyBitz secures $10 million in 4th round of funding

SkyBitz, a provider of satellite-based tracking and information-management services, has scored a $10 million round of financing that will be used to hire more workers, ramp up its product development and move into new markets.

The series D funding brings the Sterling-based company's total financing to $68 million.

The latest financing was led by a new investor, CIBC Capital Partners, and included existing investors AIG Highstar Capital, Inverness Capital Partners, ITV and Motorola Ventures, the venture capital arm of Motorola (NYSE: MOT - News).

In conjunction with the fourth round, SkyBitz has added three members to its board, bringing the total to seven.

Chuck Teubner, chairman and CEO of VidSys, an operations-center security software company with offices in Vienna and Marlborough, Mass., has been named chairman of the SkyBitz board.

Larry Sur, a logistics and trucking technology industry veteran, was also appointed to the board. Mark Hastings, head of the U.S. Merchant Bank, the private equity arm of CIBC World Markets, is the third person to join.

With new money in tow, SkyBitz plans to bulk up its staff. It currently has 50 workers, including 40 in Sterling, and hopes to add an additional 25 employees, mostly local, by the end of 2007, says Roni Taylor, executive vice president of marketing.

SkyBitz is searching for managers, engineers, sales representatives, product-development folks and customer-service reps. To accommodate the new hires, the company recently added about 8,500 square feet to its existing 20,500-square-foot space in Northern Virginia.

The company wants to track more things beyond its core focus of assets such as trailers and containers, perhaps items found in oil and gas fields, holding tanks and other hazardous materials, she says.

Privately held SkyBitz would not disclose its revenue, but the company did say that sales increased nearly 70 percent in 2006 from the previous year. SkyBitz is profitable, Taylor says.

The Washington Business Journal | bizjournal.com