NORWALK, Conn., March 8, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Quelsys, a privately held e-learning company, today announced the receipt of $5 million in venture capital funding. The company's second round funding comes as it prepares to launch SocratEase 3.0, a Web-based corporate training platform available at http://www.Quelsys.com.
Using the SocratEase solution, managers can easily create Web-based training programs that communicate knowledge about products, processes and systems to staff, sales representatives, vendors, distributors, partners, customers and others. The new 3.0 platform is a self-service ASP and fully compliant to Instructional Management System (IMS) specifications.
"Our investors share our vision for corporate training in which individual knowledge is translated into worldwide training in minutes," said Peter M. Cholnoky, president and CEO of Quelsys. "Our next-generation platform makes corporate training available to businesses that have never before been able to realize its benefits. This investment will be used to reach this market."
The corporate e-learning market is currently more than $2 billion and is expected to grow to $23 billion by 2004, according to a recent report by IDC.
Quelsys' SocratEase is used by more than 100 businesses, managing training for more than 250,000 individuals. The Graduate School USDA, Critical Path, FedEx, Lucent, Etera, Compaq, OfficeMax, eBay, Mitel, SEI and Volvo are among the companies successfully implementing SocratEase to train their sales forces, calling center employees, distributors and customers.
In conjunction with this most recent round of funding, Richard H. Rogel and Hugh R. Lamle have joined the Quelsys board. Rogel founded Preferred Provider Organization of Michigan, Inc. in 1982 and served as its chairman from its inception until it was sold in 1997. Lamle has served as executive vice president and principal of M.D. Sass Investors Services Inc., a registered investment advisory firm, since 1974.
Since June 1995, Lamle has also served as president and chief investment officer of Chase & M.D. Sass Partners, a joint venture between Chase Manhattan Bank and M.D. Sass Investors Services which manages portfolios for corporate and institutional investors.
Quelsys was founded in 1998 by the group that built Gartner Group's Online Learning Center. The management team includes senior level executives from Apple, Gartner Group, Lockheed Martin and KPMG. CEO Peter Cholnoky has more than 20 years of experience building, running and developing technology ventures. He founded Fox Industries, a Gartner Group-funded company that specialized in building online learning systems, and led Apple sales teams through the 1980s.
About Quelsys
Quelsys is a privately held, e-learning company offering SocratEase, a Web-based, corporate training platform that allows managers to quickly create programs to share knowledge with employees, vendors, partners and customers. SocratEase includes a customized site, authoring tool, learning management system and an e-commerce feature that is scalable to e-learning projects of all sizes -- from project-specific courses to enterprise-wide universities. Companies using SocratEase as their corporate training platform include Graduate School USDA, Critical Path, FedEx, Lucent, Etera, Compaq, OfficeMax, eBay, Mitel, SEI and Volvo. More information about Quelsys can be found at http://www.Quelsys.com or by calling (203) 852-4200.
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CONTACT: Schneider/Shapiro for Quelsys
Stacey Whitaker
(212) 402-5455 ext. 122
stacey@schneidershapiro.com