Portfolio Press Release
Optena Secures $3.1 Million In Series A Funding
Hires New CEO and Uses New Funding to Expand Depth and Breadth of Business
San Jose, CA - June 7, 2005 — Optena, a leading provider of management and automation solutions for Grid Computing, announced today that it has completed a $3.1 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by investors InterWest Partners, a leading diversified venture capital firm, with participation from Outlook Ventures, a top investor in seed and early stage next-generation software. Optena will use this investment to expand its development staff and acquire additional customers.
The Company also announced that Sean J. Walsh has joined as its President and CEO. As part of the investment terms, Steve Bowsher, General Partner, InterWest Partners and Cindy Padnos, Venture Partner, Outlook Ventures, will join the board. Rick Thau, an Executive-in-Residence at InterWest Partners and a long time advisor to early stage companies, will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board. Surendra Reddy, Optena Founder and CTO, continues as a member of the board.
"We are extremely pleased with the high caliber of investors that have participated in our Series A round of funding," said Sean J. Walsh, President and CEO. "The funds will be instrumental in accelerating our growth and enable the continued development of our GridSpaces (TM) suite of software solutions which are proven to make computing grids easy to set up and operate for commercial enterprises."
Sean Walsh joins Optena with over 20 years of experience in the software and services industries with executive and management positions at IBM, Accenture, Cambridge Technology Partners, Novell and Symphony Services. Recent roles have included President of the Commercial Software Group at Symphony Services, Chief Operating Officer of Novell North America and Senior Vice President, Strategy and Alliances at Cambridge Technology Partners.
"GridSpaces makes Grid Computing an affordable reality for a commercial enterprise." said Steve Bowsher, General Partner, InterWest Partners. "Prior to our investing in Optena, GridSpaces was in production for more than a year at a large commercial enterprise managing a computing grid of thousands of low cost computers. This enterprise has realized millions in acquisition savings over more traditional computing approaches since GridSpaces empowers them to manage and grow their computing grid with a minimum of IT resources. It's clear to us that other enterprises will want to achieve similar benefits from using computing grids."
Cindy Padnos, Outlook Ventures added: "In our view, the market potential for Grid Computing solutions is extremely large. The key to tapping into this market potential is to make computing grids easier to set up and operate - with the ultimate goal of Grid automation. Such management is not possible with existing Grid Computing solutions. Optena's GridSpaces software solutions enable this critical evolution to happen."
About Optena
Optena (www.optena.com) was founded in November 2002 by current company CTO Surendra Reddy with the goal of creating and delivering a software platform that made computing grids easy to set up and operate. The result - Optena's GridSpaces™ - enables commercial enterprises to easily set up and operate computing grids using low cost computing resources. Powered by Optena's Dynamic Sense and Respond Architecture™, GridSpaces automatically and continuously aligns an enterprise's computing resources into an easy to operate grid with no manual tuning or administration required.
About InterWest Partners
InterWest Partners (www.interwest.com), founded in 1979, is a leading diversified venture capital firm focused on building long-term relationships with entrepreneurs and portfolio companies. With more than $2 billion of capital raised, including its new investment fund of $600 million, InterWest has 11 experienced partners in Menlo Park, CA and Dallas, TX, who bring together deep domain knowledge in life sciences and information technology.
About Outlook Ventures
Established in 1995, Outlook™ Ventures (www.outlookventures.com) actively invests in promising seed and early stage next-generation software companies in the Western United States. We are passionate about working with high-potential entrepreneurs toward a shared vision. The firm applies its depth of experience and resources, unique among seed and early stage firms, to building each individual portfolio company. As a result, Outlook has delivered returns in the top quartile of all venture funds and, more importantly, has helped those entrepreneurs to achieve profound impact on their industry sectors.
Contact
Rebel Brown
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