{"id":83,"date":"2008-02-03T14:23:22","date_gmt":"2008-02-03T22:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web2innovations.com\/money\/2008\/02\/03\/an-online-collaboration-tool-built-around-microsoft-excel-took-2m-plans-for-2m-more\/"},"modified":"2008-03-27T02:49:53","modified_gmt":"2008-03-27T10:49:53","slug":"an-online-collaboration-tool-built-around-microsoft-excel-took-2m-plans-for-2m-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web2innovations.com\/money\/2008\/02\/03\/an-online-collaboration-tool-built-around-microsoft-excel-took-2m-plans-for-2m-more\/","title":{"rendered":"An online collaboration tool built around Microsoft Excel took $2M, plans for $2M more"},"content":{"rendered":"

eXpresso<\/a>, an online collaboration tool<\/a> around Excel spreadsheets<\/a>, has raised $2M round of financing<\/a> from Novus and Rocket Ventures. This is on top of another couple of millions they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made off the sale of their original product, Smart DB<\/strong>, to Rocket Software<\/a> (no relation to the VC firm). The money will be put towards expanding their current Excel product and building an online Powerpoint application due out next summer as well. The company has also announced they have plans to raise $2M more at the near future.<\/p>\n

Expresso Corp<\/a> is bringing new capabilities to Microsoft Excel<\/a>. Using their software users <\/a>can manage, compare and collaborate on Excel documents \u00e2\u20ac\u201c features that Microsoft surprisingly hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t added on their own.<\/p>\n

eXpresso is built upon AJAX<\/a> functionality and combines a series of collaboration tools and back-end database wrapped around Microsoft\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own online spreadsheet editor<\/a>, Microsoft Excel Web Component<\/strong>. The company seems oddly positioned by leaning heavily on Microsoft\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s technology, but CEO George Langan<\/strong> points out that they can continue to develop the component without Microsoft\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s support, or disturbance, and have a great deal of patented intellectual properties<\/a> in the database system they run on. On the other side Microsoft has abandoned the technology themselves, announcing an end to development of the Office Web Components. Instead, they are focusing on developing new technologies around Microsoft Sharepoint<\/a>. So, will Microsoft consider buying them or will just copy\/cat their features and functionalities or is Microsoft heading towards different direction and will leave eXpresso behind? Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s put it that way it has never been good to have your business model built upon and relying on third party company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s technology, service or solution.<\/p>\n

However, the spreadsheet editor<\/a> works smoothly, provides a familiar interface, and brings most of the Excel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desktop functionality online. You can edit cells, add formulas, sort, filter, and format. Google<\/strong> and Zoho<\/strong> have been aggressively adding a lot of these features themselves, but support auto-fill and charts as well. eXpresso also offers more applications. You can create a new file from within the program or sync one directly from Excel using their plug-in. eXpresso also offers file permissions<\/a> (down to cell ranges), enables real time chat, and file management<\/a> (version control, spreadsheet comparison). It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s currently free in beta, but will cost $10 or less per user when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finally released.<\/p>\n

More about eXpresso<\/strong><\/p>\n

eXpresso is led by an experienced team with decades of collective experience in data management, and enterprise software applications<\/a>. eXpresso’s team comprises Founders and Corporate Executives who have successfully developed and delivered award-winning business solutions for Fortune 500 companies.<\/p>\n

About eXpresso Spreadsheet Communities
\nMicrosoft’s Excel spreadsheet<\/a> application is one of the most popular on the planet. Millions of people use Excel on a weekly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or even daily \u00e2\u20ac\u201c basis for simple personal tasks as well as for enterprise-critical functions such as managing supply chains, reporting corporate finance, or complying with regulatory requirements. eXpresso is a hosted workspace for real-time Excel collaboration in secure, structured communities. eXpresso brings sophisticated spreadsheet version management, comparison and collaboration capabilities to the world’s standard data interchange solution.<\/p>\n

What can you do with eXpresso Spreadsheet Communities?<\/p>\n