Sevin Rosen Funds Closes $300 Million Fund IX.

PALO ALTO, Calif. and DALLAS, July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Sevin Rosen Funds (SRF), a veteran, top-tier early-stage venture capital firm, today announced the closing of the $300 million Sevin Rosen Fund IX. This is the ninth fund since the firm's founding in 1981; SRF now has more than $1.8 billion under management.

"The venture market today is clearly different from three years ago," said Steve Domenik, general partner. "The general climate is much healthier. More importantly, entrepreneurs are more experienced, more grounded and appreciate the operational knowledge we bring to the table. We've never varied from our practice of applying our team-oriented, collaborative approach to help build companies with innovative technologies and novel products."

John Jaggers, general partner, added, "At just over $300 million, this latest fund reflects our capital-efficient approach to funding entrepreneurial ventures. Fund IX represents the right balance between having plenty of capital when it's needed, and being small enough that we can focus on very early-stage ventures as we've done for 23 years."

"We were pleased by the interest in Fund IX, which was significantly greater than we could accommodate, but it was important that we stayed committed to our $300 million target," Jaggers continued. "We believe that limiting investment in venture capital over the next few years, both at the portfolio company level and at the fund level, will be critical to generating superior returns for the venture industry. Our firm is very concerned that there continues to be far too much capital in the venture industry and this excess capital threatens overall industry returns. We are doing our part by being disciplined about fund size and are confident that our discipline will be rewarded with good returns."

In addition to closing Fund IX, several other positive events occurred this year for Sevin Rosen's portfolio, including:

  -- Cytokinetics (CYTK) IPO, April 2004
  -- Hewlett Packard's acquisition of Trulogica, February 2004
  -- Vitesse Semiconductor's acquisition of Cicada, January 2004

Sevin Rosen has seen a very active 2003-2004, having engaged with 22 new projects in the last six quarters. The first investment in Fund IX is expected sometime early this fall.

About Sevin Rosen Funds

Sevin Rosen Funds is a top-tier venture capital firm with a track record of funding successful companies since 1981. The partnership has consistently made early-stage investments in pioneering technologies and companies with the potential to create new markets. The partners' broad range of venture and operating experiences in successful technology companies translates into a sustained commitment and contribution to the development of the ventures funded. Compaq, Lotus, Cypress, Electronic Arts, SGI, Citrix and CIENA are representative of some of the firm's successful IPOs.

Sevin Rosen General Partners are Jon Bayless, Steve Domenik, Steve Dow, John Jaggers, Jackie Kimzey, Dave McLean, John Oxaal, Charles Phipps, Al Schuele, Dave Shrigley and Nick Sturiale. The firm has offices in Dallas, Palo Alto, Austin, and San Diego. For more information, please visit http://www.srfunds.com/.

CONTACT: media, Donna Sokolsky of Sparkpr, [phone], or [e-mail], for Sevin Rosen Funds

Web site: http://www.srfunds.com/