Storage:

Spinnaker Networks Raises $31 Million

Spinnaker Networks Inc, a leader in developing next-generation, distributed storage systems, announced that it has successfully raised $31 million in its Series B funding round. This second funding follows an initial funding round of $20.4 million in 2000.

The second round of investment was led by Mellon Ventures Inc, with GIC Special Investments (GIC SI) also joining as a new investor. Series A investors Menlo Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners, also participated in the funding round.

"Spinnaker has great technology and market potential, along with a strong management team that will propel the company to the forefront of the increasingly important storage marketplace," said Charles Billerbeck, Senior Managing Director of Mellon Ventures. "We are extremely enthusiastic about what Spinnaker is bringing to market in terms of performance and scalability and how its Transparent Scalable Architecture offers a single point of on-line management to lower the total cost of ownership."

"Both first-round investors stepped up their commitment to the company because of the progress they've made in bringing this ground-breaking technology to market. The storage space continues to be recognized as a strategic area of IT investment for corporations around the world," said Kevin Hall, Venture Partner, Norwest Venture Partners.

"Spinnaker Networks is an emerging leader in the storage market, and we are pleased to be part of its second round of funding," said John Jarve, Managing Director of Menlo Ventures. "We recognize the value that Spinnakeršs technology brings to market, the IT issues it will alleviate, and anticipate Spinnakeršs rapid rise to a dominant position in the storage industry."

According to Ron Bianchini, Spinnaker Networks' president and CEO, "This new round of funding reflects the excitement in the investment community about the innovative way in which Spinnaker's solution will solve real storage management and scalability issues for enterprise IT organizations."

Spinnaker Networks is developing storage servers that will keep pace with the ongoing demand for greater enterprise storage capacity and performance. Its innovative storage architecture will solve scalability and storage management issues faced by Fortune 1000 companies struggling to meet their ever-growing need for networked storage resources.

About Mellon Ventures

Mellon Ventures Inc, an affiliate of Mellon Financial Corporation, makes equity-related investments of between $3 million and $25 million. With offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, and Pittsburgh, Mellon Ventures Inc invests at all stages of a company's growth cycle, from early stage venture capital to later stage growth financings and buyouts. Mellon Ventures, since its inception in 1995, has invested and/or committed over $1.3 billion in capital.

About GIC Special Investments Pte Ltd

GIC Special Investments (GIC SI) is the private equity investment arm of GIC, a fund management company established in 1981 to manage the foreign reserves of Singapore by investing globally. GIC SI manages an international portfolio of investments comprising venture capital and private equity funds, and direct investments. Reflecting its global orientation, GIC SI operates out of offices in key financial centers around the world and is headquartered in Singapore. Additional information is available at www.gic.com.sg.

About Menlo Ventures

With over $2 billion under management, Menlo Ventures is a dedicated team of investment professionals with a broad range of industry experience in software, communications, and life sciences. The company is proud of its reputation not only as highly skilled investors, but as ethical and reasonable individuals as well. Menlo Ventures views itself as business partners with its entrepreneurs, and its goal is to provide them with the best possible services that the investment community can offer. Additional information is available at www.menloventures.com.

About Norwest Venture Partners

For more than 40 years, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build large businesses. The firm manages more than $1.5 billion in venture capital and has funded over 350 companies since inception. Additional information is available at www.norwestvp.com.

About Spinnaker Networks

Spinnaker Networks Inc is pioneering next-generation distributed storage systems for enterprise customers and service providers. Spinnaker's innovative distributed architecture delivers unsurpassed scalability and performance in a system that significantly reduces management costs and complexity.

Spinnaker was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., a geographic region with significant storage systems development and research. The Spinnaker management team comprises industry veterans from startups and Fortune 50 enterprise server, storage and networking companies. More information is available at www.spinnakernet.com.

Contact Joe Austin, JPR Communications, 818-386-0403, joea@jprcom.com.