UpShot nabs $17M fifth round.

Byline: Clifford Carlsen

Online sales automation pioneer UpShot Corp. took $17 million in a fifth venture capital round it had hoped to avoid, but expects the money to help it break even within a year.

All but one of the company's previous backers re-upped in the latest financing, with Chicago-based ABN AMRO private equity leading the deal and Advanced Technology Ventures and Alloy Ventures, both of Palo Alto, Calif., and Boston's New England Partners also contributing.

The money brings UpShot's total investment to $59 million and will help sell its service in a market company officials hope is more receptive than ever.

"A year ago you didn't need this kind of thing," UpShot founder and CEO Keith Raffel said. "But with the economy the way it is now, interest is higher than ever."

Previous rounds of financing ran up to a total of $15 million in three rounds between December 1996 and April 1999, and UpShot began generating revenues in July 1998. When it raised $27 million in the hot market of February 2000, the company expected its next equity round to be an initial public offering.

Still, Raffel said previous backers were ready and willing when the company required more capital, with only corporate backer Intel Corp. failing to return, as is its common practice as a strategic backer.