Courion Secures $13.2 Million in Second Round Funding; Lead Investor QuestMark Partners Sees Strong Growth in Courion's Identity Management Software.

Business/Technology Editors

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 28, 2000

Courion(R) Corporation, a leading developer of self-service identity management software, today announced it has secured $13.2 million in second round financing. New Courion investor QuestMark Partners, whose recent investments in successful e-business infrastructure management companies include SpeechWorks International and Datasage (recently acquired by Vignette Corporation), led the round. Riggs Capital joined QuestMark as a second new investor. To date, Courion has raised a total of $18 million in financing.

JMI Equity, an investor in Peregrine Systems, BindView Development, and Mission Critical Software (recently acquired by NetIQ) led the earlier-round investors who participated in this financing. Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation (MTDC), another existing investor, also increased its existing investment in Courion.

Courion will use the funding to add new products to its suite of self-service identity management software solutions, expand into e-commerce and international markets, and continue the explosive growth that has seen revenue increase 80% quarter over quarter during the past four quarters. Courion's last two fiscal quarters have also included the acquisition of four new million-dollar customers including Boeing. Courion's fast growth has led the company from 24 employees at the end of 1999 to over 90 today. Courion expects to employ 200 people by the end of 2001.

"As the Internet becomes the platform for doing business with partners and customers around the world, managing the exploding number of user identities and controlling access to computing resources in a secure, scalable, cost-effective way will challenge every e-business," said Tom Hitchner, partner at QuestMark. "Courion's products are must-haves for customer service organizations that need to offer employees, partners, and customers high quality support and instant, self-service solutions to common identity management problems."

"Everyone has experienced the pain of forgetting a password or the privacy concern of registering personal information on a Web site, and e-businesses are now realizing how expensive, unscalable, and unsecured their current methods of supporting these common operations are," says Harry Gruner, partner at JMI Equity. "The impressive list of Fortune 500 customers that rely on Courion's PasswordCourier and ProfileBuilder solutions to bring scalability and security to their e-business operations indicate great things to come for Courion."

"Courion is the first company to combine a self-service approach designed for computer end users with a sophisticated workflow engine that automates the complex, behind-the-scenes user management processes run manually by support centers," said Chris Zannetos, president and chief executive officer of Courion. "The improvements in service quality, security, and cost control delivered by our unique approach to identity management have been recognized by our customers. With this latest financing, leading venture capitalists are showing their confidence in our technology and market advantages."

About Courion

Courion Corporation develops self-service identity management software for IT support and customer service organizations that need to provide employees and customers with secure, cost-effective, high quality user support. As e-business networks are opened to employees, customers, and business partners around the world, Courion's self-service solutions replace manual, costly, and unsecured user administration with automated, instantaneous, secure identity provisioning that speeds access to computing resources, enhances information security, protects user privacy, and reduces support calls and costs.

Courion, based in Framingham, Mass., was founded in 1996 and is backed by leading venture capital firms and private investors. Courion's customers include Boeing, Cummins Engine, Firstar Bank, Guardian Life Insurance Company, Penn Mutual, and Raymond James. For more information about Courion, call 508-879-8400, send e-mail to [e-mail], or visit http://www.courion.com.