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Personnel and human resources software provider Authoria Inc. raised $22.5 million in a fifth round of debt and equity to support a hosted platform for specialized products for recruitment, succession planning, compensation and other talent management functions.
 
Horizon Technology Finance of Farmington, Conn., and Velocity Financial Group of Wakefield, Mass., came into the round as new investors.
They join previous backers Menlo Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., Austin Ventures of Austin, Texas, Van Wagoner Capital Management of San Francisco, CIBC Capital Partners of New York and Norwest Venture Partners of Menlo Park.
 
The deal follows acquisitions the 10-year-old company made of Austin-based Hire.com in 2005 and Advanced Information Management Inc. of Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2004, in an industry that continues to consolidate.
Investors said they were attracted to the deal based on the acquisitions the company has made in a sector they believe has been undervalued.

"We are very familiar with the space, and knew they were growing nicely, and they are a consolidator in a consolidating industry," said Greg Clark, a managing director with Horizon Technology Finance. "Talent management is an area with a couple of niches that were not being well valued on Wall Street, and it seemed to us the consolidation in that space was needed and that they have done a good job."

Authoria executives declined to comment on the new investment round, but the deal brings total equity investment in the company to well over $100 million, in addition to $58 million raised by Hire.com. Authoria's most recent announced investment round was a $10 million deal led by CIBC in 2004.
At the time of the Hire.com acquisition in 2004, Authoria said it had begun operating profitably, but Hire.com had not achieved profitability.

In a statement, Authoria reported that sales bookings grew 40% in the first half of this year over the same period of 2006, and that customers increased by 23%.

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