Ignition Capital

Ignition Capital is a private equity firm founded in 2008 and headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, with additional offices in Seattle, Palo Alto, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. The firm specializes in buyouts, mid to late-stage investments, and turnaround opportunities, focusing on providing growth capital. Ignition Capital targets a diverse array of sectors, including technology and communications, consumer services, and healthcare. Within healthcare, it invests in primary care facilities, biotechnology advancements, and pharmaceuticals. In the consumer sector, it backs companies leveraging technology in education, retail, e-commerce, and other services. The firm is an active investor, typically seeking a controlling or leading interest in its investments, and engages in co-investments. Ignition Capital operates primarily in the United States and China, offering both investment and operational support to its portfolio companies.

John Zagula

Founding Partner and Managing Director

8 past transactions

PaxVax

Private Equity Round in 2015
PaxVax Corporation focuses on the research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of vaccines targeting various infectious diseases. The company has developed a range of products, including a single-dose oral cholera vaccine (PXVX0200), a typhoid fever vaccine (Vivotif), and a hepatitis A vaccine (Epaxal). Additionally, PaxVax is advancing oral vaccine candidates for avian influenza, anthrax, and components for HIV vaccines, while also researching vaccines for malaria, dengue, rabies, and herpes simplex virus. By utilizing a proprietary adenoviral-based technology, PaxVax aims to overcome the limitations of traditional injectable vaccines, such as cold storage requirements and the need for medical personnel for administration. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, the company also has facilities in San Diego and Switzerland. PaxVax offers its vaccines for travelers and biodefense both in the United States and internationally, operating as a subsidiary of Emergent BioSolutions, Inc.

YPX Cayman Holdings

Series D in 2014
YPX Cayman Holdings Co., Ltd. is a restaurant management company based in Shanghai, China, specializing in the food and beverage industry. Established in 2010, the company operates a chain of restaurants under the brand name Cloud 9. In addition to its own brand, YPX Cayman Holdings aims to introduce new restaurant concepts into the Chinese market through franchising and partnerships with international companies. The company has set an ambitious goal of expanding its presence to approximately 1,500 stores across various brands in China. Its focus is on providing affordable, high-quality dining experiences, particularly in the realm of Taiwanese casual dining and snacks.

PaxVax

Series B in 2014
PaxVax Corporation focuses on the research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of vaccines targeting various infectious diseases. The company has developed a range of products, including a single-dose oral cholera vaccine (PXVX0200), a typhoid fever vaccine (Vivotif), and a hepatitis A vaccine (Epaxal). Additionally, PaxVax is advancing oral vaccine candidates for avian influenza, anthrax, and components for HIV vaccines, while also researching vaccines for malaria, dengue, rabies, and herpes simplex virus. By utilizing a proprietary adenoviral-based technology, PaxVax aims to overcome the limitations of traditional injectable vaccines, such as cold storage requirements and the need for medical personnel for administration. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, the company also has facilities in San Diego and Switzerland. PaxVax offers its vaccines for travelers and biodefense both in the United States and internationally, operating as a subsidiary of Emergent BioSolutions, Inc.

PreViser

Venture Round in 2013
PreViser Corporation specializes in the development of dental risk and periodontal disease analysis software solutions. Its primary product, PreViser, is an analytic tool that assists dental professionals—such as dentists, hygienists, periodontists, and orthodontists—in quantifying and communicating patients' risk and disease levels through numeric scores. This software not only aids clinicians in diagnosing and planning treatment but also serves educational purposes for teaching institutions, allowing students to learn how to measure risks and manage diseases in clinical settings. Additionally, PreViser operates mydentalscore.com, a platform that helps employers educate employees, supports dental insurers in conveying the significance of oral health, and enables patients to assess their oral disease risk based on personal information. Founded in 2002 and based in Concord, New Hampshire, PreViser operates as a subsidiary of Red Tree Holdings, Inc.

YPX Cayman Holdings

Series C in 2012
YPX Cayman Holdings Co., Ltd. is a restaurant management company based in Shanghai, China, specializing in the food and beverage industry. Established in 2010, the company operates a chain of restaurants under the brand name Cloud 9. In addition to its own brand, YPX Cayman Holdings aims to introduce new restaurant concepts into the Chinese market through franchising and partnerships with international companies. The company has set an ambitious goal of expanding its presence to approximately 1,500 stores across various brands in China. Its focus is on providing affordable, high-quality dining experiences, particularly in the realm of Taiwanese casual dining and snacks.

Tier 3

Series B in 2012
Tier 3 specializes in providing enterprise-class cloud services and software designed to enhance business agility for global companies. The company offers a comprehensive platform that combines infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS), facilitating an efficient transition to IT as a Service. Its virtual private cloud services support a wide range of business application portfolios, catering to development, production, and mission-critical environments. Through advanced cloud orchestration and management capabilities, Tier 3 enables organizations to achieve greater operational efficiency and flexibility, making it an ideal choice for both global enterprises and service providers.

Spoken Communications

Series B in 2012
Spoken Communications offer these businesses Spoken ConversationCenter, the first conversation-centric solution for the contact center. It provides a single AI-enabled platform for channeling, managing, and analyzing digital conversations – including voice, thanks to TrueMeaning, Spoken’s patented real-time digital voice channel. Spoken ConversationCenter let’s service providers meet the demands of the modern digital consumer now and in the future while optimizing service delivery costs with AI, Big Data, and cloud-first performance.

Spoken Communications

Series A in 2010
Spoken Communications offer these businesses Spoken ConversationCenter, the first conversation-centric solution for the contact center. It provides a single AI-enabled platform for channeling, managing, and analyzing digital conversations – including voice, thanks to TrueMeaning, Spoken’s patented real-time digital voice channel. Spoken ConversationCenter let’s service providers meet the demands of the modern digital consumer now and in the future while optimizing service delivery costs with AI, Big Data, and cloud-first performance.
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