Palo Alto, Calif. - May 19, 2003
Cemaphore Systems, Inc. today announced the closing of its first round of venture capital financing. Cemaphore raised $8 million from three prominent venture capital firms: Mayfield, Worldview Technology Partners, and vSpring Capital, plus a number of individual investors. It also announced that Kevin Fong from Mayfield, and Michael Orsak from Worldview Technology Partners have joined the company's Board of Directors, which also includes Jeff Erwin from Microsoft.
"The entire Cemaphore Systems team is proud to be backed by such a strong team of Venture Capitalists," said Tyrone F. Pike, President and CEO of Cemaphore. "In our previous companies we have worked with Mayfield and the vSpring partners and we look forward to working with the team at Worldview. It has been rewarding to find strong backers who share our vision and passion for building messaging system enhancement software for Microsoft Exchange."
Prior to founding Cemaphore Systems, Pike has held executive positions in various software and networking infrastructure companies including: Internap Network Services, VPNX.com/SwitchSoft Systems, UB Networks, Citrix Systems, Puma Technologies, Global Village, Intel and LAN Systems.
Cemaphore Systems will use this funding to advance its e-mail messaging product development effort, and to expand its engineering, sales, and marketing teams in its Palo Alto, Calif. and Draper, Utah offices. The company is developing a new market category, Messaging Services Management (MSM). Within this category, Cemaphore will deliver messaging system management software products to enhance current e-mail and messaging applications. IDC predicts that the messaging market will grow to $4.2 billion by 2006.
"Cemaphore Systems is developing cost-saving enterprise software applications the market is demanding," said Kevin Fong, Managing Partner of Mayfield. "One of the ways companies are achieving this is by consolidating resources in the data center, with a special focus on the remote office. As companies increase their reliance on e-mail and messaging to boost productivity, they also need enterprise-grade messaging management solutions to keep their operations flowing smoothly and efficiently."
"We are excited about the opportunity to deploy our global resources on behalf of Cemaphore to take advantage of domestic and international e-mail market opportunities," said Michael Orsak, general partner and co-founder of Worldview Technology Partners. "Better management and performance enhancement of Microsoft Exchange and Outlook is a critical need for companies with remote offices around the world. The Cemaphore team is developing a product that is not only unique, but will help simplify an IT manager's workload while saving
"Cemaphore represents an ideal investment opportunity for us," said Ed Ekstrom, Managing Director of vSpring Capital. "The company addresses a large and growing market that is experiencing acute customer pain. With Cemaphore, we are prepared to address this market with a veteran CEO and a proven team. We are excited to be working with Tyrone Pike, as well as with Mayfield and Worldview."
About vSpring Capital
vSpring is a traditional early-stage venture capital firm with over $180 million of committed capital under management. The firm specifically targets information technology and life sciences companies headquartered in the Intermountain West region. Its primary areas of focus include enterprise software, networking and communications, security software, Internet, mobile computing, drug discovery, drug delivery, diagnostics and medical devices, all markets where the firm has deep experience. For more information, please visit www.vspring.com.
Contact: Gena Cecala, 1-801-942-8999, gena@vspring.com
About Mayfield
Mayfield provides Venture Capital with Impact and creates next-generation technology companies in communications and enterprise software. Since Mayfield's founding in 1969, the firm has invested in more than 456 companies and has taken approximately 140 companies public. Mayfield's portfolio of companies includes those that represent the foundation of today's technology economy, as well as companies striving to set the technology paradigms of the future such as Scalix, OuterBay, and Mendocino. For more information, please visit www.mayfield.com.
Contact: Jennifer Jones, 1-650-854-5560, jjones@Mayfield.com
About Worldview Technology Partners
Founded in 1996, Worldview combines a focused investment strategy in emerging IT technologies with international value-added services. Worldview's unique international value-added services team enables Worldview's portfolio companies to more easily penetrate global markets for customer, supplier, and manufacturing relationships. It also serves as a valuable source of market information and customer feedback. Worldview has an investment office in Palo Alto and business development offices in Tokyo, Shanghai, and Frankfurt. Worldview has more than 75 companies in its portfolio with $1.4 billion under management. For more information, please visit www.worldview.com.
Contact: Steve Kaufman, VCPR, 1-408-436-0774, skaufman@vcpr.com
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