Milwaukee Tech: Opportunity to Recycle?

In another post I wrote about the history of the Madison tech scene, wondering out loud about the opportunities to recycle capital and talent. Wisconsin is of course more than just Madison and I felt remiss knowing some of the stories from Milwaukee without sharing. While I’m not privy to all the happenings out east, I suggest you reach out to the folks at Startup Milwaukee who are passionate (and good at) connecting tech startups in the city.

The Milwaukee folks have also had success in the funding and tech value creation arena that include:

• Metavante Technologies – Formed in 1964 as a subsidiary of Marshall & Ilsley called M&I Data Services. M&I Data services provided banking and payment services to financial institutions and other businesses. Metavante was split off in 2007 as a public company and acquired by Fidelity National Information Services in 2009.
• Dedicated Computing – Computer designer and manufacturer founded in 1978. Privately held and reports 24 consecutive years of profitability. Acquired Tushaus Computer Services in 2011. Tushaus was another Milwaukee area company started in 1993 and had 140 employees and $32M in revenues when acquired.
• Fiserv – Formed in 1984 by the merger of two regional financial services data processing providers, one of which was First Data Processing of Milwaukee. Went public in 1986.  Fiserv is currently headquartered in Brookfield Wisconsin and had $4.48 billion in revenue in 2012.
• Paragon Development Systems (PDS) – Started in 1986 building to sell wholesale, transitioned to producing PCs and eventually became a $170+ million IT company providing services and a reseller channel. In 2010, Mason Wells acquired majority interest in PDS. In 2012, PDS got a new leader, a physician, to help take the company deeper into healthcare.
• http://wtnnews.com/articles/10413/
• Meridian Group – Founded in 1990, Galaxy Data was a network design and implementation business acquired by Meridian Group in 2006. The business remains in Milwaukee as a stand alone business unit Meridian IT.
• Montage Talent – Founded in 2007, the company provides video interviewing products and has raised $10M to date with the most recent $4M round led by Baird Venture Partners.