SAP, Others Invest In App-Integration Vendor

SAP and Baan, continuing their support of startups that link bigenterprise applications across company walls, this week will disclose minority investments in CrossRoute Software Inc. CrossRoute, which will change its name this week to Extricity Software Inc., sells a software suite called Alliance that lets companies connect their business applications with those of their supply-chain partners over the Internet and other IP networks.

SAP has already invested in Web procurement software vendor Commerce One and marketing automation provider MarketFirst Software Inc. Baan holds an equity stake in Web middleware maker TopTier Software Inc.

Joining SAP and Baan in the $10 million round of "strategic funding" for Extricity are Intel; the venture capital arm of Cambridge Technology Partners; and RRE Investors, a venture firm headed by former American Express CEO James Robinson. Each investor's investment wasn't disclosed.

Extricity, in Redwood Shores, Calif., was founded as CrossRoute in 1996 by former Ross Systems chairman Ken Ross. The Java-based Alliance product runs on Windows NT Server and contains off-the- shelf connectors for applications from Baan, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP. But companies can also use Alliance to link enterprise resource planning applications over the Internet with legacy apps, as well as with electronic data interchange documents and middleware such as Tibco Inc.'s TIB/Rendezvous or IBM's MQSeries.