Key Research Secures $12.5M in Funding with Top Tier Partners to Develop Next Generation Clustered Computer Systems.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers PALO ALTO Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 5, 2003 Round Co-Led by Charles River Charles River River, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. The longest river wholly in the state, it flows into Boston Bay after a course of about 80 mi (130 km). Navigable for about 7 mi (11 km), its estuary separates the cities of Boston and Cambridge. Ventures and Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, with CMEA CMEA Council for Mutual Economic Assistance CMEA Cellular Message Encryption Algorithm CMEA Canadian Music Educators' Association CMEA Council for Mutual Economic Aid CMEA Certified Machinery Equipment Appraiser CMEA Colorado Music Education Association Ventures, Skymoon Ventures, ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures, and the Dow Employees Pension Fund Participating Key Research Incorporated announced today it has completed a Series B financing of $12.5M. Co-leading the round are top-tier venture firms Charles River Ventures and Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. Fortune 100 leaders ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures and the Dow Employees Pension Plan also participated as new investors. These investors join existing investors CMEA Ventures and Skymoon Ventures, who also participated in the Series B. Key Research will use the funds to complete the development of its innovative server product line and to formally launch the company and its initial products later this year. Dave Newman of Charles River Ventures and Robert Conn of Enterprise Partners Venture Capital have joined the company's board of directors. They join existing board members Jim Watson
Jim Watson is a politician in Ontario, Canada. of CMEA Ventures and Tom McWilliams, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and CTO (Chief Technical Officer) The executive responsible for the technical direction of an organization. See CIO and salary survey. of Key Research. Key Research is a new computer systems company that plans to dramatically improve total server cost of ownership. Key Research is designing and engineering high-performance 64-bit server computer systems optimized for use in Linux clusters. Key Research has a new, innovative approach to building high-performance servers, specifically designed for larger cluster users who are concerned about the economics of server computing. "Attracting these top investors in one of the toughest funding environments is a strong endorsement of our team and our product strategy," said Tom McWilliams, CEO and CTO of Key Research. "Our innovative approach to building high-performance 64-bit servers will set a new standard for total cost-of-ownership and revolutionize the way people think about building large Linux-based clusters." Key Research was founded by a team of highly experienced computer industry veterans from leading companies such as Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. , Silicon Graphics, Amdahl, and Hewlett-Packard. "The quality, experience and proven track record of the founding team is what attracted us to Key Research." said Robert Conn, managing director at Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, "But their unique approach to high-performance cluster computing Cluster Computing: the Journal of Networks, Software Tools and Applications is a journal for parallel processing, distributed computing systems, and computer communication networks. and to revolutionizing total cost-of ownership is what sets them apart from all of the existing computer industry players. They clearly have spent a great deal of time listening to potential customers." "Key Research has a new vision for high-performance servers - one that is not held hostage by a legacy architecture. Their servers will be an ideal fit to a significant number of computing problems," said Dave Newman, partner, Charles River Ventures. "Their approach to server design should dramatically expand the market for Linux-based clusters. Applications that still require expensive symmetrical multiprocessor servers will be able to migrate to a low-cost clustered server architecture for the first time." Key Research will announce more details about the company and its products later in 2003. About Key Research, Inc. Key Research is a privately-held company based in Palo Alto, CA. Founded in July 2001 by a highly regarded team of computer system industry veterans, Key Research is designing and engineering high-performance 64-bit server computer systems optimized for use in Linux clusters. Key Research has a new, innovative approach to building servers. These servers are designed for larger cluster users who are concerned about the overall economics of server computing. About Enterprise Partners Venture Capital Enterprise Partners Venture Capital (EPVC EPVC Enterprise Partners Venture Capital EPVC Early Popular Visual Culture (academic journal) EPVC Extended Permanent Virtual Connection EPVC Enterprise Permanent Virtual Circuit - www.epvc.com) is a San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. based venture capital firm founded in 1985 and organized to invest in privately held early stage and emerging growth companies. The funds under active management now exceed $1 billion of capital. EPVC has been forging successful partnerships and demonstrating superior management guidance and growth performance. This has made it the largest venture capital firm in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, and has placed it in the top quartile Quartile A statistical term describing a division of observations into four defined intervals based upon the values of the data and how they compare to the entire set of observations. Notes: Each quartile contains 25% of the total observations. of venture capital firms Name Location Founding date Managing Partners/Directors Specialty Capital managed 5AM Ventures Menlo Park, CA; Waltham, MA 2002 John Diekman, PhD (managing partner), Scott Rocklage, PhD (managing partner), Andrew Schwab (managing partner) life sciences $200M [1] in the United States. Enterprise Partners has developed an investment practice based upon partners with deep domain expertise, enabling it to invest in disruptive technologies with strong competitive barriers while working diligently and directly with extraordinary entrepreneurs and companies. EPVC has a strong regional franchise while its history and involvement in the VC world has led to its national reputation. About Charles River Ventures Founded in 1970, Charles River Ventures (CRV CRV Curve CRV Crew Return Vehicle (NASA) CRV California Redemption Value CRV Cassa Di Risparmio Di Vignola (Italian bank) CRV Call Reference Value (telecommunications) ) is one of the nation's oldest and most successful early-stage venture capital firms with $2 billion under management. CRV is dedicated to helping exceptional entrepreneurs turn their ideas into the next category leaders in the data communications and software & services sectors. To build these companies, CRV provides entrepreneurs with access to a unique combination of financial backing, operations expertise and strategic business services. Over the past 10 years, CRV funds have ranked among the industry's top performers. CRV (www.crv.com) has offices in Boston, MA and Menlo Park, CA. About CMEA Ventures CMEA Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in Life Sciences and Information Technology investments, investing in both early and late stage companies. CMEA actively partners with our extended network of companies, other venture capital firms, institutional investors, strategic partners and entrepreneurs. CMEA typically leads or co-invests in technology companies with new products that provide their customers at least an order of magnitude A change in quantity or volume as measured by the decimal point. For example, from tens to hundreds is one order of magnitude. Tens to thousands is two orders of magnitude; tens to millions is three orders of magnitude, etc. improvement in mission critical areas such as cost and performance. CMEA Ventures (www.cmeaventures.com) currently has 5 funds and manages one half billion dollars of venture capital. About Skymoon Ventures Skymoon Ventures (www.skymoonventures.com) is a venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California “Palo Alto” redirects here. For other uses, see Palo Alto (disambiguation). Palo Alto (IPA: /ˌpæloʊˈʔæltoʊ/, from Spanish: palo: "stick" and alto: "high", i.e. . In addition to helping entrepreneurs transform good ideas into great companies, they also generate business plans in-house, recruit teams to execute them, and nurture these companies as they grow. With a particular focus on semiconductors and telecommunications infrastructure, Skymoon Ventures helps entrepreneurs create products and businesses with lasting value. About ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures, a unit of ChevronTexaco, is involved with identifying, investing and commercializing new and emerging technologies that have the potential to enhance the performance of our current ChevronTexaco businesses and lead to new growth opportunities. We encourage innovation through venture investing venture investing The acquiring of a stake in a start-up company by a brokerage firm or analyst by obtaining discounted, pre-IPO shares. Critics claim venture investing causes analysts to have a vested interest in seeing a stock appreciate in value and so , business development and commercialization. ChevronTexaco is a global energy company, based in San Ramon, Calif., with a leading-edge venture capital group established to make equity investments in early startup-stage, new technology companies. For more information, visit www.chevrontexaco.com/technology/ventures. About the Dow Employees Pension Plan The Dow Employees Pension Plan is the pension plan for the Dow Chemical Company The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW TYO: 4850 ) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan. Overview The Dow Chemical Company is currently the second largest chemical manufacturer in the World (after BASF)[1]. . They are an active venture capital investor with a sizeable Limited Partnership and direct investment portfolio. The Dow Employees Pension Plan has developed a proprietary in-house methodology to enable them to participate in what are considered to be companies leading in their respective fields. For more information, visit www.dow.com/venture. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion