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BinWise Raises Series A

2012-05-15
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Auster Capital Partners, a private equity and investment advisory firm, announced today that it has completed a Series A investment in BinWise, the leading provider of cloud-based beverage management solutions.
Auster Capital Partners, a private equity and investment advisory firm, announced today that it has completed a Series A investment in BinWise, the leading provider of cloud-based beverage management solutions. BinWise developed the on-line software application RealWineLists which is currently being used by some of the world's most successful restaurants.

BinWise is a privately held software as a service (SaaS) company based in San Francisco. It was founded in 2007 by wine and computer science professionals who were passionate about the wine and restaurant industry.

BinWise created an on-line product, RealWineLists, that powerfully manages all the functions of a beverage program by linking purchasing, inventory management, and point of sales systems. Its technology links the customer's wine list, inventory, purchasing and point of sale with groundbreaking efficiency and accuracy. The Company's impressive customer base includes The French Laundry, Michael Mina, Per Se, 11 Madison, Tribecca Grill, and Restaurant R'evolution among others.

"We are pleased to have the ACP team as our partners," stated founder Grant Gilligan, a former sommelier who achieved notable success in the industry prior to his development of RealWineLists. "I believe their guidance will prove instrumental to the success of the Company and of the RealWineLists platform." Grant added that "the financing not only helps us further innovate our best-in-class product, but more importantly establishes a partnership that can and will provide a valuable network of resources, both physical and intellectual. In our search for financing we sought a partner that could help create long-term value and direct the Company through various obstacles and opportunities. We believe we have that in ACP."

Chuck Auster, Managing Partner of ACP, said "BinWise is positioned to not only make world-class products, but to revolutionize the entire restaurant and wine industry."

Simultaneous with the Series A financing, the Company appointed Doug Hickey and Isabelle Hong as CEO and CFO, respectively. Doug has an extensive background in operating Internet software companies. Most recently Doug was Managing Partner at venture capital firm Hummer Winblad. Prior to Hummer Winblad, Doug was CEO of Critical Path, a leading provider of Infrastructure-as-a-Service. Prior to Critical Path, Doug was President & CEO of Global Center where he spearheaded the Company's rise to become the first and largest provider of advanced web hosting. Doug was also President & CEO of MFS Datanet the leading provider of data related services to internet service providers and leading corporations around the globe.

In his new role as CEO of BinWise, Doug commented, "I'm excited to lead such a bright and enthusiastic group of people. We look forward to further developing the BinWise platform and creating a world class company for customers and investors alike." Isabelle joins the BinWise team with over 15 years of finance and business operation experience including the last 10 years in CFO roles with technology companies in cloud hosting and managed services for MMOGs, open-source software for web & cloud applications, SaaS for healthcare, and software for IT system optimization.

BINWISE
The company was founded in 2007 by wine professionals whose passion for the industry helped create solutions for the distribution and tracking of wine, beer and spirits. The Company set out to achieve the impossible - create a way of linking purchasing, inventory management, point of sales and beverage lists on one platform. Its first product, RealWineLists, is an on-line software application that does just that. RealWineLists provides transparency to beverage program management and has been used by restaurants, hotels, corner bistros as well as Wine Spectator Grand Award winning restaurants. With the incredible success of RealWineLists, BinWise is currently developing a series of world-class products, which will be released later this year. BinWise is headquartered in San Francisco, its employees are passionate about the restaurant and wine industry. http://www.binwise.com

AUSTER CAPITAL PARTNERS
Auster Capital Partners is a private equity and investment advisory firm with expertise in telecommunications, managed services, cloud computing and information technology sectors. ACP seeks to invest in private companies that have strong value propositions and proven management teams. Its advisory business provides transactional expertise offering due diligence, deal structuring and a variety of services which includes outsourced deal management, financial restructuring and capital raising. Auster Capital Partners was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey with offices in London, England and an affiliate office in Santiago, Chile. The website for the company is at http://www.austercapitalpartners.com.
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