Keypoint Lures High fliers & £5m Funding

Scottish start-up KeyPoint Technologies has lured a Silicon Valley high-flyer to Glasgow after he was impressed by its revolutionary texting software.

The company, which is close to raising £5m, produces software used in PDAs, mobile phones and personal computers and is recruiting 60 staff in anticipation of signing a deal with a multinational technology group.

KeyPoint is raising around £5m of its new funding from international investors and it is understood that the group will also receive a regional selective assistance grant of several million pounds from the Scottish Executive.

Peter Waller, a former director of marketing operations for IBM in Europe and a vice-president of Hitachi, has joined as chairman. Sunil Motaparti is appointed chief technology officer and arrives from Magma Design Automation, a Nasdaq-listed group based in California. Indian-born Motaparti has a masters in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pennsylvania.

Motaparti said:

"I never imagined that I would settle in Scotland. But KeyPoint Technologies is very much world leading and I'd like to be part of this success story when it happens. I've seen nothing like it in Silicon Valley, that's why I rate it so highly."

Source: Guy Dixon, Scotland on Sunday

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