Beltway Biz

USinternetworking Inc., Annapolis, Md., a provider of Internet applications and services for businesses, recently completed its second round of financing, raising another $62 million.

The financing round, led by Grotech Capital Group and J.H. Whitney & Co., likely will rank as one of the top two or three largest single rounds of venture capital funding raised in 1998, once the year's final figures have been reported, the company noted.

New investors from the round, which closed in late December, included Siebel Systems Inc., J.H. Whitney and Waller-Sutton Media Partners LP. Also participating are Grotech, Blue Chip Venture Co., Massey Burch Capital Corp., US West and Venrock Associates — participants in USi's first round of equity financing in the second quarter of 1998. The fledgling firm now has raised more than $95 million in private-equity financing.

USi will use the phase-two financing to advance its business plan, which focuses on outsourcing best-of-breed business applications over the Internet to midmarket companies for a flat monthly fee.
Axent Technologies Inc. of Rockville, Md., is bolstering its line of computer security products through its planned acquisition of Internet Tools Inc. for $26.5 million in stock.

Once the purchase is completed, Internet Tools of Fremont, Calif., will become the fourth company Axent has bought in two years. More acquisitions are planned.

The public sector is a small but growing part of Axent's business. The company had $100 million in sales in 1998, and government customers accounted for between 5 percent and 10 percent of revenue, according to John Becker, Axent's chairman and chief executive officer. Internet Tools will add to Axent's line of products that protect Web servers, intranets and electronic commerce applications.
Personal Satellite Network of Manassas, Va., has demonstrated that e-commerce is possible from anywhere in the world using inexpensive satellite data communications. The company announced this month that it had sent and received credit card verification using the Orbcomm satellite system.