Asta Networks Announces $15 Million in Second Round Financing; Laura Jennings of Atlas Venture Joins Board of Directors.

Business/High-Tech Editors

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 2001

Asta Networks, a developer of Internet reliability products and services, today announced that it has secured $15 million in its second round of funding, led by Atlas Venture.

Both previous investors, ARCH Venture Partners and Madrona Venture Group, also participated in the round. Additionally, Laura Jennings, a senior principal at Atlas Venture, will join the Asta Networks Board of Directors.

Asta Networks recently introduced the first technology designed specifically to solve the Denial-of-Service (DoS) problem. The new financing will allow the company to accelerate its product development and expand its operational capability. Asta Networks closed its first round of funding in summer of 2000, bringing the total to $18 million.

"Given the current market conditions, this funding is a significant endorsement for the need to deliver DoS protection and other technologies that impact the end-to-end reliability of the Internet," said Joe Devich, Asta Networks president and CEO. "We will draw upon the experience and leadership of Laura Jennings, our newest board member, as we make these long-needed solutions a reality for network operators and the customers they serve."

Prior to Atlas Venture, Jennings was a twelve-year veteran of Microsoft Corp., where her roles included vice president of worldwide strategic planning and vice president of MSN.

"It was clear to Atlas Venture that Asta Networks will provide technologies critical to increasing the quality and reliability of the Internet," said Jennings. "The company's vision is unique and the technical and management teams it has assembled are extraordinary."

Last month, Asta Networks announced the successful detection of a series of real-world DoS attacks using automated technology. DoS attacks, like those that plagued Microsoft two weeks ago, paralyze network and Web site operations by flooding them with useless traffic, blocking customer access, and potentially crashing entire networks.

"The team at Asta Networks understands distributed networks and the difficult issues facing businesses that rely on the Internet," said Greg Gottesman, managing director at Madrona Venture Group. "Protection against DoS was an important milestone for the company and, as the recent attack on Microsoft demonstrated, it's an essential problem to solve. Asta Networks is developing the complex technology that successfully answers some of the industry's most pressing challenges."

"We continue to be very excited about Asta Networks and the world class products and services the company is delivering," said Alex Knight, managing director, ARCH Venture Partners. "This financing builds on the Company's recent successes including the appointment of Joe Devich and the deployment of a DoS solution at Internet2. As the Internet becomes an increasingly important component of the economic infrastructure, we're confident that Asta Networks can play a key role in ensuring it runs smoothly and effectively."

About Atlas Venture

Atlas Venture is the leading international, early-stage venture capital firm investing in Internet, communications, and health and life sciences companies. Founded in 1980, Atlas Venture has organized five international funds, and currently manages $1.6 billion in committed capital. Additional information about Atlas Venture is available from http://www.atlasventure.com.

About ARCH Venture Partners

With offices in Albuquerque, Austin, Chicago, New York and Seattle, ARCH Venture Partners (http://www.archventure.com/) is a premier provider of seed and early stage venture capital for the commercialization of innovations in information technology, life sciences, and the physical sciences. The partnership's special expertise is to found, co-found, and build technology firms from startup. Partnering with entrepreneurs, academic institutions, and national research laboratories nationwide, ARCH has built more than 60 successful companies, many of them from the concept stage. ARCH's investments include, among many others, New Era of Networks, Apropos Technology, Caliper Technologies and Nimble Technology.

About Madrona Venture Group

Madrona Venture Group LLC (http://www.madrona.com/) is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on the Internet economy in the Northwest. The firm targets investments in Internet and wireless technologies, with an emphasis on communication and networking, infrastructure and platform technologies, and Internet consumer and business software. Based in Seattle and Portland, Madrona has a $250 million fund that includes early-stage investments such as Amazon.com, RuleSpace, WildTangent and Terabeam.

About Asta Networks

Asta Networks is a Seattle-based company creating network infrastructure technology that works with existing hardware and software to improve the reliability of the Internet. The company's initial focus is solving the intensifying problem of DoS attacks. By reducing the impact of DoS attacks and other network problems, Asta Networks will enable organizations to confidently depend on the Internet for their critical business transactions. For more information, visit http://www.astanetworks.com.