PALO ALTO, Calif., March 28 - Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. (Nasdaq: HTGC), a leading specialty finance company providing venture capital and private equity backed technology and life science companies with debt and equity growth capital, announced on March 9, 2006 it provided $4.0 million in financing to Compete, Inc., a provider of online consumer market research. The capital will be used to expand Compete's business in existing markets and continue to support its sales and marketing efforts.
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"Compete's unique intelligence services and targeting products allow marketers to advance their products and deepen customer relationships," said JP Marchette, associate of Hercules. "The company has generated significant market demand by using permission marketing to help marketers better identify and reach target consumers, and has demonstrated established success in the automotive, financial services and wireless vertical markets."
"Marketing must change to reach increasingly elusive consumers and we feel strongly that we are helping to transform the way that brands and consumers communicate," said Don McLagan, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Compete. "We are excited to have Hercules as a partner as we collaborate with innovative marketers to listen to and communicate with their customers."
About Hercules Technology Growth Capital:
Founded in December 2003, Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. is a NASDAQ traded specialty finance company providing debt and equity growth capital to technology-related companies at all stages of development. The company primarily finances privately-held companies backed by leading venture capital and private equity firms and also may finance certain publicly-traded companies. Hercules focuses its investments in companies active in technology and technology-related industries such as computer software and hardware, networking systems, semiconductors, semiconductor capital equipment, information technology infrastructure, Internet consumer and business services, telecommunications, and life sciences. The company's investments are originated through its principal office located in Silicon Valley, as well as additional offices in the Boston, Boulder and Chicago areas. Providing capital to publicly traded or privately held companies backed by leading venture capital and private equity firms involves a high degree of credit risk and may result in potential losses of capital.
For more information, please visit http://www.htgc.com . Companies interested in learning more about financing opportunities should contact info@htgc.com or call 650-289-3060.
About Compete, Inc.:
Compete, Inc. extends online market research to transform the way consumers and brands communicate. By combining permission marketing, predictive analytics and the industry's largest consumer behavior database, Compete helps marketers identify and reach their target consumers. Compete delivers conversant marketing solutions that increase profitability and customer loyalty and result in measurable and effective marketing programs. Compete delivers these solutions to leading brands such as Carlson Hotels Worldwide, DaimlerChrysler, Hyundai Motor America, Toyota Financial Services and Upromise(R), among others. Compete is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with offices throughout the US. For more information, please visit http://www.compete.com .
Forward-Looking Statements:
The statements contained in this release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, which involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by their use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects," "may," "should," "would," "will," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "anticipates" and similar words, and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the expectations, intentions or strategies of Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. For these statements, Hercules claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You should be aware that Hercules' actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties affecting its business. Factors that may cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements include Hercules' limited operating history as a business development company, the extent to which Hercules incurs debt to fund its investments, fluctuations in interest rates, the concentration of Hercules' investments in a limited number of emerging-growth or expansion stage technology-related companies, the illiquid nature of the securities Hercules' holds, the highly competitive market for investment opportunities in which Hercules operates and others discussed in Hercules' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are made as of the date hereof, and Hercules assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements for subsequent events.
