FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Invirtus Secures Round One Funding
Interland Founder Ken
Gavranovic Joins Board of Directors
Atlanta,
GA – July 25, 2006 – Invirtus, the leading provider of solutions
which optimize and automate virtual machine technology, announced today that it
has received first round funding from investors. Founded in 2004, Invirtus
counts hundreds of businesses worldwide among its customers, including many
Fortune 500 organizations.
"We've
already established a significant presence in the Virtual Machine space with our
first product, VMOptimizer™," said Tom Edwards, Invirtus CEO. "This investment
reinforces the importance of our technology and will allow us to remain focused
on customer requirements and the delivery of additional products later this
year."
The
funding announcement comes on the heels of an accolade received earlier this
year when Gartner Group included Invirtus in its "Cool Vendors in Emerging
Technologies, 2006" report by Martin Reynolds, et al., Gartner, Inc. (30 March
2006). This early analyst recognition helped Invirtus capture the attention of
several successful members of Atlanta's investment community.
Leading
this first round investment are Kenneth L. Gavranovic, Bryan W. Adams, Clark
Gilder and Thomas M. Lord.
"With
organizations like Google and Microsoft investing billions in data centers,
managing and optimizing virtual machines becomes increasingly important for
reducing their reliance on physical servers," said Gavranovic when asked about
his interest in the organization. "Invirtus is really on the cutting edge of
this technology and will enable all sorts of new scenarios."
Best
known for his role as the founder of Interland, Gavranovic is currently the
chief executive officer of SimplySold Real Estate, the nationally franchised
real estate brokerage company that he co-founded in 2005. Before leaving
Interland, Gavranovic successfully raised more than $100 million in a 2000
public offering and prior venture capital rounds, and successfully negotiated
numerous strategic investments from partners including Microsoft, Verizon and
VeriSign. With this investment, Gavranovic joins the Invirtus Board of
Directors.
Adams is currently managing director of Sullivan Street
Capital, a partnership targeting investments in emerging software, information
technology and business services companies. Prior to forming Sullivan Street,
Adams served as chief financial officer of ITC Holding Company.
Adams has had an active role in numerous successful
investments, including Vigo Remittance (acquired by First Data), Powertel
(acquired by Deutsche Telecom), Mindspring (merged with EarthLink), ITC^Deltacom
(distributed to shareholders at IPO), Knology (distributed to shareholders,
subsequent IPO), Headhunter.Net (sold to Tribune Company and Knight Ridder), and
Intercall (sold to West Corporation). With this investment, Adams joins the
Invirtus Board of Advisors.
"Virtualization will redefine how companies run their
enterprise infrastructure. It enables significant improvement in server
utilizations rates, which will lower substantially overall server costs," said
Adams. "Invirtus provides the solutions needed to greatly reduce the size and
increase the speed and performance within the virtualization environment."
Gilder, formerly from Redmond, Washington, spent 13 years
at Microsoft where he led ISV evangelism in the CRM space and was a Lead Program
Manager for Microsoft Windows 2000, XP and 2003 Server. With his investment,
Gilder joins the Invirtus Board of Advisors.
Lord, who possesses more than 20 years industry experience,
is a private investor and consultant focused on the information services and
telecommunications industries. Lord was the Co-Founder, EVP & CFO and Board
Member of Allegiance Telecom before its acquisition by XO Communications. While
at Allegiance, he was responsible for raising more than $2.8 billion in capital,
structuring more than a dozen acquisitions and forging a strategic relationship
with Paul Allen and Vulcan Ventures. Lord also spent more than 10 years as a
Managing Director at Bear Stearns where he began the firm's practice in the
technology, information services and telecommunications industries. During his
tenure, he was responsible for transactions that exceeded $6 billion in equity,
debt and M&A.
According to Invirtus CEO Tom Edwards, "We're thrilled to
be able to secure support from such savvy and accomplished professionals at this
early stage. Ken, Bryan and Tom have tons of experience developing successful
technology companies and will be able to help us comfortably navigate the
opportunities and deliver on our commitments. Clark's software development
experience will prove invaluable as we conceive and introduce new products."
About Invirtus
Invirtus pioneered the technology credited with reducing
the size of virtual machines and continues to lead the development of tools that
assist with the management of virtualization technologies, a market that Gartner
estimates will grow to $30 billion by 2008. Invirtus is currently developing new
technologies that will help companies discover innovative ways to enhance their
IT capabilities while extending their IT budgets. For more information:
www.invirtus.com or call 678-679-4490.
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