| 2003 |
 |
Unicorn
CEO Writes Article for DM Review Magazine: "Semantic
Information Architecture: Creating Value by Understanding
Data"
October 2003 |
Unicorn
CEO & Founder Zvi Schreiber published an article in DM Review
Magazine dealing with the importance of a semantic architecture.
His article is one of the first to explore the importance semantics
in such a mainstream data publication. Schreiber writes: "Semantics
inspires a vision in which data carries unambiguous business
meaning that can be accurately found, aggregated and used without
prior knowledge of the data's specific format. A semantic information
architecture offers a structured way for forward-thinking enterprises
to start to realize benefits of semantics in their IT."
--------------------------------------------
|
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Unicorn Raises $6,000,000 in Second Round
September 16, 2003 |
Unicorn Solutions, provider of enterprise information management
solutions, announced that it has closed a Series B financing
round totaling $6 million led by existing investors Bank of
America Equity Partners (BAEP) and JGV, with Apropos and Intel
Capital also participating. Edward McCaffrey, BAEP’s Chief Investment
Officer, said, “Bank of America continues to believe that Unicorn’s
semantic information management represents one of the best practices
for Global 1000 and public sector enterprises, enabling them
to increase agility and reduce IT costs. We see this as a long
term investment in the leader of a new software category.”
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Solutions
Seals Series B with $6M
Sept 16, 2003 |
Unicorn
Solutions, a provider of data-infrastructure technology, closed
$6 million co-led by Bank of America Equity Partners (BAEP)
and Jerusalem Global Venture (JGV) with participation from Apropos
and Intel Capital.
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Information Management
Systems Company Unicorn Raises $6M in Second Round
Sept 16, 2003 |
New York-based
Unicorn Solutions, a developer of information management systems,
today announced that it closed a second financing round totaling
$6 million. In a separate announcement, Unicorn disclosed that
Edward McCaffrey, BAEP's Chief Investment Officer, would be
joining the company's Board of Directors.
--------------------------------------------
|
|
|
Unicorn System
v2.5 Launched
May 29, 2003 |
Unicorn
Solutions, a provider of strategic platforms for managing enterprise
information assets, announced it is releasing the latest version
of its Unicorn System. The Unicorn System is a revolutionary
platform for managing enterprise information assets – including
legacy data, databases and message formats – all of which are
based on data semantics, commonly defined as a consistent business
understanding of data. Moreover, the Unicorn System has been
successfully deployed at a number of Global 100 enterprises,
many with semantically incompatible databases and message formats.
Recognizing that today's enterprises are faced with the difficult
challenge of managing vast amounts of data, Unicorn continues
to improve upon its information asset management portfolio.
This new release enables organizations to build on their existing
IT data infrastructure and reduce the time and costs associated
with laborious data maintenance. Integrated capabilities include
information modeling, data semantics and meta data management.
--------------------------------------------
|
|
|
Unicorn Cited as
XML Data Conversion Company
May 12, 2003 |
In an article
entitled "Next Best to a Sure Thing," Globes journalist
Gilad Nass investigates the merits of entrepreneur-in-residence
versus incubator models within venture capital firms. He refers
to Unicorn as one of two companies working on data conversions,
specifically regarding XML.
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Staff Writes
Article for EAI Journal: "Active Information Models
for Data Transformation"
May 2003 |
Unicorn
Software Architect Joshua Fox published an article entitled
"Active Information Models for Data Transformation"
in the May 2003 edition of EAI Journal (recently renamed
BI Journal). The article discusses the challenges facing
enterprises - regardless of size - as a direct result of the
data management data integration issues involved. Fox analyzes
the drawbacks in today's EAI systems and presents the idea of
a Central Information Model providing "a neutral semantic
view" as a way of ensuring accurate data transformation
scripts. Through the introduction of a comprehensive Data Integration
Project methodology, he enables readers to concisely understand
the manner in which both large and small projects can be rolled
out. Fox concludes by stating, "For data to go beyond the
silo walls of a single application to full cross-application
sharing in a smooth, automatic manner, semantics must be formally
expressed, then linked to the data. The central information
model works with EAI systems to provide coherence for data semantics,
allowing data to become information."
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
"Web Services
Gain Corporate Following"
April 7, 2003 |
In this
Economist Intelligence Unit article about Web Services,
the author cites Unicorn Solutions as a vendor with a track
record of providing quick and substantial return on investment:
"In order for web services to work, companies must standardise
certain procedures and terms used by their various software
applications and database repositories. But the payoffs can
come quickly. With help from Unicorn’s web services-based technology
... the [customer] firm was able to meet shipment dates, boost
efficiency and trim losses."
--------------------------------------------
|
|
|
"Web Inventor's
Semantic Web is No Sure Success"
April 2, 2003 |
This article
describes the Tim Berners-Lee's vision of a Semantic Web as
discussed at the 2003 PC Forum in Arizona, an event in which
Unicorn CEO Zvi Schreiber was invited to participate as a panelist.
"The Semantic Web is going to happen," said Zvi Schreiber,
CEO and founder of New York-based Unicorn Solutions. "But
you need the killer applications."
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Staff Writes
Article for Web Services Journal: "Semantic Discovery
for Web Services"
April 2003 |
Unicorn
Software Architect Joshua Fox and Product Manager Joram Borenstein
published an article in Web Services Journal regarding
the problems surrounding service discovery, particularly in
terms of WSDL and UDDI. "The comprehensive adoption of
a truly dynamic discovery of Web services may ... be delayed."
The authors conclude that only a semantic layer serving as a
foundation will these Web Services technologies provide real
value: "Without a semantic infrastructure to form the backbone
of the UDDI Registry, semantic inconsistency will prevent the
large-scale adoption of active Web services adoption. The ongoing
decentralization of Web services will make this problem increasingly
acute in the coming few years. Formalization of the semantics
in Web services is a step toward automated UDDI discovery and
the fulfillment of the Semantic Web vision."
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Solutions
Prominently Featured in Esther Dyson's Release 1.0: "Models
and Consequences"
February 20, 2003 |
Esther
Dyson's popular monthly newsletter devoted its February 2003
issue to the topic of ontologies, taxonomies, and hierarchical
models, otherwise known as "the more complex world of entities
that have precise and interdependent relationships." In
this issue, Unicorn featured prominently in a number of tables
and in an in-depth interview with Unicorn CEO and Unicorn customers:
"The user problems Unicorn encounters and addresses are
incredibly simple, and incredibly deep," Dyson writes.
Moreover, Dyson also cites benefits she heard during interviews
with a number of Unicorn customers: fewer data transformation
code errors, increased project scalability, the ease with which
a model can be compared in comparison to an SQL script, and
the improved work relations between programmers and business
analysts as a direct result of the former now being able to
update applications via a central ontology model.
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Company
Profile: "Speaking the Language of Data": "Unicorn
is a lesson in perseverance."
Winter 2003 |
Tornado
Insider dedicated three pages to Unicorn Solutions in their
Winter 2003 issue, focusing on the product offerings, customer
successes, and an extensive interview with Unicorn CEO Zvi Schreiber.
Writer Tania Hershman explains that "Companies are becoming
increasingly aware that managing all their data is critical
to the success of their business, from keeping the supply chain
running smoothly and avoiding inventory mistakes to remaining
competitive in terms of customer relations," thereby summarizing
the market in which Unicorn is achieving its successes. She
goes on to state: "This is a field called Data Semantics.
In the business context, Unicorn's software acts as middleware,
brining all the information together automatically without humans
having to spend precious time examining each database to see
what's there."
--------------------------------------------
|
| 2002 |
 |
Semantic Applications
Create Real Value Today
November 15, 2002 |
Information
Week magazine featured a letter ("Semantics Today")
by Unicorn's CEO, Zvi Schreiber, in response to a previously
published article having to do with data semantics and the Semantic
Web vision ("The Next Web," October 14, 2002). "While
the full vision of a semantic Web may be years away, as members
of a World Wide Web Consortium Semantic Web working group, we're
seeing applications of semantics creating value in enterprises
today. We've worked with companies this year, using semantic
models to rationalize disparate data sources into one body of
information."
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Cited in
XML.com as an Enterprise-Oriented Semantic Integration Company
November 6, 2002 |
Michael
Denny's article on ontologies and ontology products ("Ontology
Building: A Survey of Editing Tools") cites Unicorn as one of
the pioneers in the area of semantic data integration, stating,
"the enterprise-oriented products have mostly started out as
data integration tools like those from Unicorn Solutions." "Evolving
from semantic network notions, modern ontologies are proving
quite useful. These structured depictions or models of known
(and accepted) facts are being built today to make a number
of applications more capable of handling complex and disparate
information. They appear most effective when the semantic distinctions
that humans take for granted are crucial to the application's
purpose. With databases virtually all of the semantic content
has to be captured in the application logic. Ontologies, however,
are often able to provide an objective specification of domain
information by representing a consensual agreement on the concepts
and relations characterizing the way knowledge in that domain
is expressed. This specification can be the first step in building
semantically-aware information systems to support diverse enterprise,
government, and personal activities."
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Commercializes
Semantic Web Initiatives for Global 1000 Data Management
November 2002 |
"The ideas
pioneered in the Semantic Web Initiative of the W3C are now
being commercialized by companies like Unicorn Solutions. The
first generation products based on semantic technologies will
address internal data management issues being faced by the Global
1000, and the second generation is poised to impact e-business
interactions between companies. The nature of our interaction
with the web and the core processes of e-business will be transformed
and greatly simplified by some of these new technologies."
--------------------------------------------
|
|
|
Venture Reporter
Magazine Names Unicorn a Top 100 Company: "It's the kind of
solution executives are likely to embrace"
October 2002 |
"Unicorn
Solutions isn't setting out to solve a longstanding problem
that technology can fix but rather solve a problem that technology
itself has caused. Specifically, this startup is ... helping
executives to consolidate information gathered in different
programs and different formats, and letting those programs talk
to one another, making it possible to see on just one display
what a sales force and engineering group that may be using different
software are doing. The need for [the Unicorn System] makes
perfect sense. [Companies] have to worry about integrating and
rationalizing applications, and that needs to happen without,
as Schreiber said, 'having to re-engineer the entire company.'
It's the kind of solution executives who want to avoid another
tech buying binge are likely to embrace."
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Solutions
Noted in CIO Magazine
"Doing It with Meaning: Innovation and Products in the Vanguard"
August 15, 2002 |
"Semantics-based
integration technology is being pioneered by a variety of software
companies, including ... Unicorn Solutions. Semantics integration
tools are considered by analysts and industry players to be
a kind of middleware that thinks." This special edition of
CIO Magazine dedicated to "The Integration Imperative" highlights
a number of data integration issues critical to Unicorn's customers
and it is no surprise that Unicorn is mentioned as a leading
semantic data integration tool.
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn User Interface
Highlighted in Java's Swing Sightings Site
August 2002 |
The Unicorn
System user interface is highlighted on the official Java Swing
Sightings website as a "good example of what is possible with
Swing." It " has a technology that understands enterprise
data by relating obscure data formats to standard business vocabulary.
Unicorn's product ... is an Active Repository & Thesaurus for
enterprise data which uses a Business Model as a unified lens
onto the thousands of data formats (schemas) found in the average
enterprise and automates translation between the formats."
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
"A Single Coherent
Enterprise View"
March 25, 2002 |
Unicorn
CEO & Founder, Dr. Zvi Schreiber, was quoted in a Business
Week Reader's Report in response to an article by Tim Berners-Lee:
"The good news about the Semantic Web is that, in addition to
the consumer applications mentioned, adding structure and meaning
to information will in time bring trillions of dollars of savings
to businesses worldwide. Today, the majority of the world's
corporations suffer from inherent business inefficiencies due
to a lack of "semantics" that can unite hundreds of incompatible
data sources into a single coherent enterprise view."
--------------------------------------------
|
|
|
Unicorn Raises
$2.7 Million, Establishes NYC Headquarters
March 20, 2002 |
Unicorn
Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of strategic enterprise
data integration solutions, today announced that it has extended
its Series A Preferred financing round with an additional investment
of $2.7 million. The Company also announced that it has opened
New York Offices as its International Headquarters and U.S.
Base of Operations.
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Information Firm
Unicorn Solutions Gets $2.7 Million
March 20, 2002 |
Unicorn
Solutions, Inc., provider of strategic enterprise data integration
solutions, has extended its Series A Preferred financing round
with an additional investment of $2.7 million. Other terms were
not disclosed, but are unchanged from the earlier $6.1 million
Series A Preferred investment announced in late 2001. The extension
officially closed in February 2002. Participating in this investment
extension were existing investors JGV (lead investor), Intel
Capital, Bank of America Equity Partners, and others. Funding
will be used for sales and product rollout.
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
XML Journal
Editor-In-Chief Touts Unicorn as Unique XML Schema Mapping Tool
January 2002 |
Unicorn
was named by the Editor-In-Chief of XML Journal
as one of the most interesting companies to be working in the
ontology space. The Editor specifically noted the XML Schema
mapping functionality that the Unicorn System enables.
--------------------------------------------
|
| 2001 |
 |
Unicorn Named A
Top 10 Seed Portfolio Company for 2001
November 2001 |
Unicorn
was named by the Venture Capital Deal Watch of IPO.com as a
Top 10 Seed Portfolio company for the year 2001. With a total
seed round of $6.1 million, Unicorn has received investments
from JGV, Intel Capital, Bank of America Equity Partners (BAEP),
Israel Seed Partners, Apropos, Tecc-IS, and various individual
private investors.
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Named A
"Hot 10 Start-Up" for 2001
October 2001 |
Unicorn
has been named one of the Top Ten European start-ups of 2001
by Infoconomist Magazine. Infoconomist boasts that "Unicorn
has ... sophisticated technology to address a real business
need. "Unicorn has developed software that, through a process
of modelling and mapping data relationships, allows automatic
data transformation and integration. Unicorn's integrated development
environment is currently in beta testing and due for release
in 2002. It allows the creation of a single information model,
or 'dictionary', that captures the meaning and logic underlying
disparate data sources and formats, be they relational databases,
EDI files or CRM applications. This then allows for on-the-fly
data transformations which will be used to target specific pain-points.
Unicorn is headquartered in New York and is incorporated in
the US, with Research and Development in Israel.
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Receives
Investment from Intel Capital
October 10, 2001 |
Unicorn
Solutions, Inc. provider of advanced information integration
products, today announced it has received investment funding
from Intel Capital. Intel Capital's investment is part of a
seed round of $6.1 million led by JGV announced earlier and
provides Unicorn with funding for the development and roll out
of its product suite for unifying enterprise information. Financial
details were not disclosed.
Unicorn's flagship product suite allows companies to unify incompatible
information assets into a single coherent resource. Anticipated
applications include the internal modeling of complex enterprises
and their varied information resources as well as creating models
which streamline integration with supply chain data initiatives
such as RosettaNet. According to Unicorn Founder & CEO,
Dr. Zvi Schreiber, "Unicorn has identified a significant opportunity
to improve the information integration process of the high tech
supply chain. The additional investment from Intel Capital will
allow Unicorn to advance its technology offering and accelerate
release of its products."
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Closes
Seed Round of $6 Million
October 3, 2001 |
Unicorn
Solutions Inc., pioneer of the next generation in information
integration, today announced it has closed its initial financing
round of over $6 million extending the preliminary closing of
$3m announced earlier. JGV led the round. According to Unicorn
Founder & CEO, Dr. Zvi Schreiber, "This round gives Unicorn
the resources to complete the roll out of the Unicorn System
and to bring it to market worldwide. In addition, JGV extends
the Company's network of contacts with the Global 1000 -- all
of which have a strong need for more coherent access to their
information asset."
--------------------------------------------
|
|
|
Unicorn Solutions
Tops Off $6 Million Seed Round
October 3, 2001 |
Unicorn
Solutions Inc., founded on 01/01/01 by Zvi Schreiber and Rannen
Meir, is pioneer of the next generation in information integration
in which information can be accumulated, managed and utilized
entirely independently of disparate underlying data formats.
The Company is currently rolling out the Unicorn System, which
realizes this vision. Through the computer- aided creation of
a central model, the Unicorn System allows companies to drive
efficiency strategically by turning disparate sources of data
into a single coherent body of information.
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Announces
Seed Round of $6 Million
October 3, 2001 |
Unicorn
Solutions Inc., pioneer of the next generation in information
integration, today announced it has closed its initial financing
round of over $6 million extending the preliminary closing of
$3m announced earlier. JGV led the round. Commenting on the
round, Shlomo Kalish, Founder of JGV, said, "Unicorn, with its
unique technology and experienced management team is poised
to solve a $15 billion a year problem of integrating information
from disparate data formats." Yoni Hashkes, Managing Partner
at JGV, will be joining Unicorn Solutions' Board of Directors.
Hashkes commented, "Companies are today limited in their ability
to integrate their internal information repositories. Those
that do approach this daunting task are relegated to using Stone
Age tools. Unicorn ... will revolutionize this field."
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Information Integration
Pioneer Raises $6 Million
October 3, 2001 |
Jerusalem-based
Unicorn Solutions Inc. said Wednesday it has raised just over
$6 million in a first round of financing led by JGV. Israel
Seed Partners and two unnamed strategic partners also took part.
No valuation was given but Israeli venture capital industry
sources put the pre-money valuation at around $6 million. Founded
in January, Unicorn claims to be a pioneer in the next generation
in information integration. The funds will be used to complete
the rollout of the company's flagship product and to bring it
to market.
--------------------------------------------
|
|
"Schreiber
is Worth Watching"
March 21, 2001 |
Integrating
data in business systems is an increasingly difficult task,
and even new approaches based on the XML data language have
their limitations. One big problem is that integrating data
can only be done on a point-to-point basis. For example, a company
can integrate financial data from a subsidiary to a parent,
but needs a separate link each time it wants to join the data
with other parts of an organization. Unicorn says it has devised
a new approach that would tackle the problem on an enterprise-wide
basis and help slash data integration costs. "Many people are
working on this problem," says Zvi Schreiber, founder and chief
executive. "But we are taking a fundamentally different approach.
We see the big systems integrators and enterprises as potential
customers." The stealth company says little more about its new
approach, and will only have betas available later this year.
But Mr. Schreiber is worth watching. Last March he sold
Tradeum, a B2B technology company he founded, to VerticalNet
for $500 million in stock.
--------------------------------------------
|
|
|
Infrastructure
Tech Firm Unicorn Gets $3 Million Seed
March 16, 2001 |
Unicorn
Solutions, a company developing data infrastructure technology
that is operating in stealth mode, said it has raised $3 million
in seed funding from Israel Seed Partners and JGV. Other investors
included Apropos, British Fund Tecc-IS, and individual investors.
Michael Eisenberg, a general partner at Israel Seed Partners,
joins Unicorn’s board as a result of the investment. Unicorn
said the financing would be used for technology development
and hiring research and development employees. Zvi Schreiber
of Tradeum and Rannen Meir founded Unicorn Solutions in January
2001.
--------------------------------------------
|
|
|
Unicorn Conjures
Up $3 Million in Seed Funding
March 15, 2001 |
Unicorn
Solutions, a company that develops technology for managing and
integrating corporate data, received $3 million in seed funding
led by Israel Seed Partners and JGV. Dr. Zvi Schreiber and Rannen
Meir founded Unicorn in January. Schreiber was formerly founder
and CEO of Tradeum, which created a software platform for trading
of direct goods, long before the term B2B was coined, the company
claims. Tradeum was sold to VerticalNet in March 2000 for $500
million. Unicorn co-founder Meir was formerly with AccessGear
working on security and data management issues related to e-commerce.
Unicorn said it will use the funds toward recruiting for its
research and development team. The company said it took only
three weeks to conclude its seed funding round. "This round
proves that even in the current environment, a compelling technological
concept with a vast potential market can attract top-tier venture
capital," Schreiber said in a statement.
--------------------------------------------
|
 |
Unicorn Solutions
Raises $3 Million Seed Round
March 15, 2001 |
Unicorn
Solutions Inc said it closed a $3 million round of seed funding
from Israel Seed Partners and JGV. Other investors include British
Fund Tecc-IS, Apropos, Unicorn founder Zvi Schreiber and an
undisclosed handful of what the company described as "highly
experienced private investors." Unicorn said it is creating
a "comprehensive architecture for the next generation of data
infrastructure" and has identified an "innovative approach"
to managing and integrating corporate data. The company said
the round took three weeks from start to finish. "This round
proves that even in the current environment, a compelling technological
concept with a vast potential market can attract top-tier venture
capital," Schreiber said. "We are very excited by the network
of contacts and credibility provided by our seed investors."
Previously, Israel Seed was the lead investor in Tradeum Inc,
a company founded by Schreiber and sold to VerticalNet for $500
million.
--------------------------------------------
|
