Textron, Yahoo lead investors in EqualFooting

By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 8/1/2000

Sterling, va.-EqualFooting.com, an online portal for small manufacturing and construction firms, became a merchant anchor on Yahoo Inc. and closed $60 million in funding during July.

Diversified manufacturer Textron, Inc. led investors with $25 million in funding, and Lewis Campbell, Textron's chairman and CEO, joined EqualFooting.com's board. The company has raised $70 million in its first year.

The apparent milestones come as the company, which went live in January, has added 2,500 suppliers to its purchasing network and more than 250,000 items in its catalog. In the next few months, EqualFooting.com will add functionality such as hosting distributors' Web storefronts and showing end users custom pricing.

CEO Jim Fox hopes that partnering with two big players like Yahoo and Textron will lead to success in a market where a crowd of online exchanges overlap. He said the moves will expand opportunities for distributor partners while his company builds its customer base.

"Our success is very much tied to the value we're adding to our suppliers," said Fox. Noting that more than 700 suppliers have posted items and content online with EqualFooting, he said, "We want to get those items out in front of as many people as possible."

EqualFooting.com becomes one of two online anchor tenants on Yahoo's "B2B Marketplace," a directory for companies looking to simplify their purchasing process. Yahoo users who search for industrial supplies can link to EqualFooting, which Fox said "gives more transparency and distribution to our supplier base."

In addition to its investment in EqualFooting, Textron will use the firm's technology to create targeted Internet applications for buying and selling goods online.

Selling opportunities will be explored both through the existing EqualFooting.com marketplace and by developing Textron-branded sites for transactions among Textron and its distributors, the company said.

Fox said the relationship with Textron, the world's largest manufacturer of fasteners, will give distributors another market to sell into, as well.

In addition, he said having an industry veteran like Campbell on the board of directors will be a big boost-especially for a dot-com.

"I think that's pretty powerful for us," he said.

Campbell said Textron sees the Internet as a tool that will complement and support its distributor networks, while reducing supply chain costs.

"Our relationship with EqualFooting.com is one more example of how we are aggressively pursuing and incorporating the best available Web-based services and technologies," he said in a released statement.

Separately, Textron also said it invested $100 million in Safeguard Scientifics to gain access to 250 Internet-related technology firms.

In addition to Textron, investors in the second round of funding include Safeguard Scientifics, Women's Growth Capital Fund, and Yahoo. EqualFooting says it places small businesses "on equal footing" with large companies in the areas of purchasing, financing and shipping. The site's business model lets members buy, finance and schedule delivery immediately, or later, using a request- for-quote system.

This spring, EqualFooting also opened a financing center and has 12 lenders to execute point-of-sale financing for customers.