Virtutech Secures $2.3 Million to Cap First Round at $8M.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Investment and Addition of New Board Director to Support Sales Strategy and Advance Growth of the Burgeoning Market for Full System Virtualization 

Virtutech, Inc., a leading provider of full system simulation technology for supporting electronic systems development, today announced the final closing of its Series A venture capital funding round. Telos Venture Partners joined existing major investors, Vision Capital and InnovationsKapital, by making a $2.3M investment, bringing the total Series A round to $8M. The Series A funding will assist in expanding Virtutech's sales and business development efforts globally, while accelerating the evolution of the company's core product, Simics.

In addition to the investment, Bruce Bourbon, general partner of Telos Venture Partners, will join Virtutech's board. Bourbon, a veteran of the electronics industry, brings forty years of experience in semiconductors and electronic design automation (EDA) to Virtutech. Prior to founding Telos Venture Partners in 1996, Bourbon served in a dual management role with Toshiba Corporation, both as president and CEO of Vertex Semiconductor Corporation (a subsidiary of Toshiba America Electronic Components -- TAEC) and as vice president of system IC marketing at TAEC. Bourbon's extensive background in managing technology and R&D organizations underscores his role as a member of Virtutech's board.

"At Telos, we are committed to investing in companies with talented management teams and the potential to become leaders in rapidly growing markets," said Bourbon. "Virtutech's success with Fortune 500 customers has demonstrated that there is a clear need for full system simulation technologies. We are confident Virtutech has both the experience and the technological advantage to make this one of the most exciting sectors in the industry."

"Telos Venture Partners is renowned as one of the premier venture firms in the industry, so this investment is a true vote-of-confidence for our full system simulation technology, Simics, and our new management team," said Peter S. Magnusson, founder and CEO of Virtutech. "This follows a vote-of-confidence from an equally important constituency: our customers, who have combined to produce a third quarter with record bookings for Virtutech."

In addition to the investment, Virtutech recently announced its move to a new corporate headquarters in San Jose, CA, and the appointment of three new senior executives to its management team: Bjorn Johansson as vice president of engineering; Dr. Paul McLellan, as vice president of marketing; and Dale Rossi as vice president of channels & business development.

About Simics

The most powerful development platform of its kind, Simics 2.0 is the fastest full system simulation development platform available, providing a controlled, deterministic and scalable environment for the development, debugging, and testing of complex electronic systems. Real-world development and test environments are nearly impossible (in cost and scope) to duplicate. Hardware costs alone frequently exceed tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, sinking development budgets. Simics addresses these problems by duplicating a vast network of heterogeneous single and multiprocessor systems (routers, switches, PCs, servers, and more), as well as clusters and networks of systems for all target architectures. The Simics development environment incorporates both custom and off-the-shelf hardware models, including peripherals and boards -- unchanged from their real hardware origins -- as well as operating systems, BIOS, firmware and drivers.

About Virtutech

Virtutech is the world's leading provider of full-system simulation technology. Virtutech is the only company using advanced virtualization technology to model test laboratories of hundreds of heterogeneous systems, deployable across all engineering tasks, enabling companies to reap real line-item benefits by dramatically reducing capital expenditure while accelerating system development. Based on more than a decade of R&D and close collaboration with leading universities and systems companies, Virtutech's core product, Virtutech Simics 2.0, provides the most advanced infrastructure for simulating complex electronic systems, serving the needs of the largest systems companies in the world. Virtutech is headquartered at 1740 Technology Drive, Suite 460, San Jose, CA 95110. For more information, visit www.virtutech.com or email [e-mail].