Charles River Ventures and JAFCO Ventures Lead $22 Million Funding of Technology Services Firm; Top Executives from HP, Scient and ZEFER Named to Spearhead Expansion

Business Wire, March 12, 2001

Business & High Tech Editors

WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 12, 2001

eRUNWAY, Inc., a leading software development and integration services firm, announced today that it has secured $22 million in second round funding led by Charles River Ventures and JAFCO Ventures.

The company also formally announced the appointments of Stephanie Feraday as executive vice president, strategy, John Kiley as executive vice president, business development and Frank Dudley as executive vice president and chief marketing officer. The group of executives is on-board to drive company growth and meet mounting customer demand for technology innovation services.

Sigma Partners and Comdisco Ventures, a subsidiary of Comdisco (NYSE:CDO) also participated in this round. The funding will be used to expand eRUNWAY's global operations and establish additional Advanced Technology Centers throughout the world.

"Today's investors are increasingly selective about where they put their money," said Kris Canekeratne, eRUNWAY chairman and chief executive officer." Backing by partners of such high stature is the ultimate validation of our business model. This capital will help us scale our organization and continue to bring to our clients the world's best talent in emerging technologies and get them to market ahead of their competition with an innovative product or service."

Currently, eRUNWAY delivers its services from Advanced Technology Centers in the U.S, Sri Lanka, and India. Applying its Global Innovation Process(TM) enables the company to leverage the finest intellectual capital from around the world, dramatically reduce time to market for its customers, take advantage of two complete work days in one via its 24/5 peer engineering process, and provide its customers with the maximum return on investment via its accountable pricing model. eRUNWAY's main focus is on software development with a complementary set of integration services.

Founded in 1996, eRUNWAY has experienced 22 consecutive quarter-to-quarter growth and nineteen consecutive quarters of profitability. It received an initial round of funding of $13.5 million by Sigma Partners in May 2000.

"eRUNWAY has assembled an exceptional global pool of technology innovators and a seasoned management team that make it an emerging software development powerhouse," said Jonathan Guerster, general partner at Charles River Ventures. "They've demonstrated that they can execute flawlessly and have a long list of satisfied clients to prove it."

"eRUNWAY has the people, process, and emerging technology expertise to be the leader in global distributed innovation," said Andy Goldfarb, senior managing director of JAFCO Ventures. "They have focused on the fundamentals of profitability and customer service and have demonstrated over the past 5 years that their unique business model works."

Industry Leaders to Play Major Role in eRUNWAY's Growth

eRUNWAY formally announced today several top management appointments to help drive the company's next wave of accelerated growth.

Stephanie Feraday has joined eRUNWAY as executive vice president, strategy. Ms. Feraday is a respected specialist in marketing, product strategy, and business development. She comes to eRUNWAY from Hewlett-Packard Company, where she was responsible for strategic planning and business development for OpenView, HP's largest software business. Prior to HP, Ms. Feraday served as general manager of Symantec Corporation's networking and communications business where she was largely responsible for making it Symantec's fastest growing business unit.

John R. Kiley has been appointed executive vice president, business development. Mr. Kiley has proven to be one of the most effective sales and business development executives in the IT services sector. During his tenure as vice president of global sales at Scient, Inc., the company recorded 700% revenue growth. Prior to Scient, Mr. Kiley ran the global sales organization at SS&C Technologies, a leading provider of software and services to the financial services industry. While Mr. Kiley was at SS&C, the company recorded nine consecutive quarters of growth that consistently exceeded analysts' estimates. Mr. Kiley has also served in senior sales positions at TPN Register (a GE and Thomas Publishing joint venture), Standard & Poors, and Smith Barney.

Frank Dudley has been appointed executive vice president and chief marketing officer. He will apply his considerable expertise in strategic marketing and innovation development to drive the overall marketing strategy, branding and positioning of the firm. He most recently served as executive vice president and chief innovation officer at ZEFER Corp., where he managed marketing, research, and innovation development for the firm throughout a period of significant growth. Prior to ZEFER, Mr. Dudley was chief creative officer for Viant Corporation and a member of the original management team, where he built and managed the firm's creative consulting practice and its renowned innovation engine, the Viant Design Studio.