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Pentech Ventures completes second investment

12 November 2001

Pentech Ventures, an early stage technology fund launched in July 2001, announced today that it has completed its second deal with an investment in Rhetorical Systems, the leading speech synthesis company. Rhetorical develops software capable of transforming written words or texts into natural sounding speech. Offering a wide variety of accents and speaking styles, the company is currently working with telephony, games and Internet organisations.

Pentech Ventures invested £1m of an overall £4.3m funding round. The investment will enable the company to expand the current sales, marketing and support functions, building on the success in both America and Europe. Rhetorical is also set to develop a wider range of languages.

Eddie Anderson, director of Pentech Ventures, commented:

"Rhetorical Systems is a natural fit for our strategy of investing in early stage technology companies that have created strong intellectual property. Rhetorical Systems, driven by its management team, has developed a leading edge technology that meets a growing global demand for voice-enabled solutions. This latest funding will enable the company to expand its operations and consolidate its leading market position to fully exploit this market opportunity."

Marc Moens, Chief Executive Officer, Rhetorical Systems, said:

"This latest round of fund raising has been very encouraging. This investment allows us to continue to develop the company according to our business strategy.

"The confidence of our investors reflects the progress we have made over the past twelve months. We have secured revenue streams through consultancy work and product income. Our strategic partnerships with some of the world’s top speech technology and animation companies has put the company on course to hit its projected turnover and business targets."