Burlington, Mass.— Excara, Inc., a provider of structured product content and catalog software solutions, recently announced that it was chosen by electrical, comm/data and integrated supply distributor Graybar to create online catalog content.

With the Graybar deal freshly inked, the firm should be celebrating. But like so many high tech firms, Excara is facing difficult times. According to CEO and president Paul Baier, the company could not find venture capital for continued funding and will close unless a buyer comes along.

Excara's Content Creation service builds master product-content databases that support online catalogs, internal flows of product content information, and catalog syndication to business and channel partners. The data can then be managed through Excara's ContentCenter™ and transmitted in a variety of commonly used formats.

Graybar's director of e-business, Deb Weiss, said the company chose Excara because of its experience with manufacturers' structured product requirements.

"We have had a good relationship with Excara and are pleased with their content digitization services," said Weiss. "They have provided consistent, high-quality, structured data."

Despite a customer base that includes an industry giant like Graybar, the company's future remains in doubt.

"We are looking for a strategic acquirer, which would allow us to continue operations. Several firms have shown interest in Excara," Baier said.

The company will complete work for Graybar over the next two to three months and is optimistic about finding an acquirer so it can continue to offer its services, added Baier.

"There is a market need for [Excara] because it's necessary to get quality data to the end-user," said Baier. "The industry must work out the funding because this problem needs to be fixed."

The company declined to disclose information regarding staffing levels or layoffs.