Wine Management Systems (WMS), a leading cloud-based provider of wine production and wine club software, helps small- and medium-sized wineries better manage and track their winery operations. The company intends to use the funding from Lighter Capital to hire a sales rep, increase its marketing budget, and diversify the product to also serve the micro-brewing industry and other verticals.
“Lighter Capital is our first source of outside funding,” says CEO and Founder Patrick Oates. “We looked at traditional lines of credit and at VC firms that specialized in cloud-based companies, but Lighter Capital spoke our language: they focused more on our revenue stream than on fixed assets. We feel fortunate to have discovered this funding option and will recommend Lighter Capital to other SaaS companies serving the wine industry.”
The grape-to-glass winemaking and cellar management platform developed by WMS tracks all winery activities from vineyard to bottling. WMS also supports inventory management, wine club management, and synchronizing financial information to QuickBooks. By providing the solution as a service, its customers needn’t invest in expensive software packages; instead they only pay a small monthly subscription fee.
“WMS is a technology leader in the wine industry,” says Lighter Capital Chief Investment Officer Molly Otter. “Its platform is easy to use and there’s not much of a learning curve for winemakers who start using their solution. Because it’s a cloud-based solution, winemakers have ready access to the data that help them run their wineries efficiently so that they can focus on what they do best: craft delicious wines!”
Learn more about Wine Management Systems or follow them on Twitter @WineMSystems.