ATLANTA -- December 5, 2000 -- VENTUREWIRE -- NetVendor, which provides B2B software for direct materials suppliers, said it formed a strategic alliance with Commerce One, a publicly-traded marketplace for buyers and suppliers. Commerce One invested equity in the company, between $5 million and $10 million, and will be featured as a link in NetVendor's software. NetVendor received $52 million in May from Internet Capital Group, Wheatley Partners, RRE Ventures, CSFB Private Equity, and Bluevector.
The alliance aims at connecting suppliers to e-marketplaces. As part of the deal, Commerce One has named NetVendor as a strategic, tier-one, sell-side independent software vendor (ISV) focused on direct material solutions. The two companies plan to cultivate joint marketing and sales opportunities. In addition, Commerce One Ventures will make an investment in NetVendor.
Commerce One and NetVendor plan to develop strategies that primarily focus on sell-side enablement technology in automotive, electronics, aerospace, and industrial e-marketplaces.
"We believe the future of business-to-business commerce is e-marketplaces," said Mark Hoffman, chairman and CEO of Commerce One. "We expect that NetVendor's solutions coupled with Commerce One's e-marketplace infrastructure, will drive supplier participation and provide a faster path to liquidity."
NetVendor will provide real-time interface to Commerce One e-marketplace solutions and the Global Trading Web, a business-to-business trading community that spans across 54 countries on six continents. Plans are underway to expand the interface capabilities to include Commerce One e-procurement and supplier solutions. Both companies plan to allow suppliers to maintain brand autonomy by integrating NetVendor's software with Commerce One's interface.