Bain Capital Ventures Anticipates XBRL Boom With EDGAR Online Investment

Bain Capital Ventures, the Boston-based venture capital affiliate of Bain Capital which has approximately $65 billion of assets under management, has taken a $12 million stake in EDGAR Online, a distributor of public company filings in the XBRL financial reporting standard. EDGAR will likely use the newly-secured funding to scale its XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) operations and also invest to expand its data and subscription offerings, according to a statement.

The move comes ahead of the SEC mandate that requires all public companies to file financial reports in the XBRL standard by 2011. The SEC started to phase-in the XBRL program (SEC Final Rule PDF) in 2009. EDGAR plans to grow its business by expanding beyond selling subscriptions to individuals or companies to selling technology and expertise that helps companies prepare their interactive reports while meeting the SEC compliance requirements, according to a statement.

"This investment accelerates our ability to scale in support of the growing demands we see in our XBRL filings business and to deliver the next round of innovation we believe is needed in our data and subscriptions businesses," said Philip Moyer, CEO of EDGAR Online. "This investment not only strengthens our balance sheet, it also positions us to deliver the next generation of value for our shareholders."

Bain Capital Ventures will purchase $12 million worth of convertible Series B Preferred EDGAR Stock. Bain Capital Ventures, with $1.5 billion billion in assets under management, has also previously invested Gartner Group, SunGard, Experian, Archer Technologies, SolarWinds, DoubleClick, Instinet, Staples, ProfitLogic, Regulatory Data Corporation, Shopping.com, Taleo and LinkedIn.

Two representatives of Bain Capital, Jeffrey Schwartz and John Connolly, will be joining EDGAR Online's board of directors. Schwartz is a founding partner and managing director of Bain Capital Ventures, and Connolly is an operating partner. Connolly is the former CEO of Institutional Shareholder Services, a subsidiary of RiskMetrics which provides proxy voting, corporate governance, compliance, and risk management solutions. Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio