Features - Financial Plays Of The Week:

NEW ENTERPRISE ASSOCIATES LEADS $16MIL CreekPath FINANCING

New Enterprise Associates (NEA) announced recently that it has invested $10 million in CreekPath Systems, a leading software development company that is setting the pace for the market in delivering integrated Storage Resource Management (SRM) solutions.

NEA led the $16 million round and two NEA partners joined the CreekPath board: General Partner Mark Perry, based in Menlo Park, CA; and Venture Partner Peter Behrendt, based in Boulder, CO. The capital raised in this funding will be used to expand the company's global sales and marketing efforts, as well as to increase product research and development to enhance the CreekPath AIM Suite.

"Our investment in CreekPath demonstrates our confidence in both the market opportunity for software that manages complex storage infrastructures for large enterprises and the exceptional quality of CreekPath's management team," said Mark Perry, NEA General Partner. "NEA believes the company is at an important inflection point in its growth. This is a great time to gain additional momentum towards becoming a global industry leader, and that is the purpose of this financing."

"In the current environment of constrained IT spending, customers are interested primarily in solutions that address areas of major pain, such as storage resource management," said NEA Venture Partner Peter Behrendt. "CreekPath excels at reducing the cost and complexity of that difficult task."

CreekPath's software Suite reduces capital and operational expenditures through an integrated, policy-based infrastructure. The CreekPath AIM Suite includes the AIM Platform and CreekPath Process Automation Modules. This solution is the industry's first storage management solution that incorporates policy-based management, as well as workflow scenarios across a heterogeneous environment.

"CreekPath has addressed the critical business problem of escalating storage management complexities and decreasing budgets by developing an advanced, active storage resource management solution in the AIM Suite," said Dennis Grant, Chairman of the Board, CreekPath Systems. "Our ability to attract a top-tier investor such as NEA is a strong testament to our ability and commitment to delivering real value to our customers in an area of significant importance."

About CreekPath Systems

CreekPath Systems is a software development company and market leader in delivering Storage Resource Management (SRM) solutions. CreekPath develops an integrated storage management platform for the global enterprise that reduces capital and operation expenses, while leveraging the complexity of evolving storage infrastructures. The components of the CreekPath AIM Suite consist of the CreekPath AIM Platform and the CreekPath Process Automation Modules. This Suite provides policy-based, process-driven enterprise storage management with policy enforcement for safe automation. For additional information, visit the CreekPath Web site at www.creekpath.com.

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is a leading venture capital firm investing in information technology and healthcare companies. Practicing classic venture capital for 25 years, NEA focuses on early stage investments, playing an active role in assisting management to build companies of lasting value. With $5 billion under management, NEA's experienced management team has invested in over 500 companies, of which more than 135 have gone public and more than 150 have been acquired. NEA has offices in Menlo Park, California, Reston, Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.

Contact: Nancy Dorman of New Enterprise Associates, 410-244-0115, ndorman@nea.com.