M7 Corporation Raises $9.5 Million in Funding; Highland Capital Partners and Redpoint Ventures Lead Investment in Leading Edge J2EE Enterprise Software Company

Business Wire, Sept 17, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 17, 2002

M7 Corporation, Inc., announced today that it received $9.5 million in its Series A round of financing. M7 is an enterprise software company that provides a component-based architecture to accelerate the development of web applications. Highland Capital Partners and Redpoint Ventures led the round, and were joined by CIR Ventures and Genevest.

Enterprises presently face many challenges when employing Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) to build web applications. Although the scalability and portability of J2EE applications are unrivaled in the marketplace, they are also rich with complexities and have a high cost of implementation.

"M7 eliminates the pain and complexity enterprises face using J2EE, unlocking its potential for Global 2000 organizations," said Mansour Safai, CEO of M7 Corporation. "This new capital enables us to further accelerate our growth by expanding our marketing and sales efforts."

"The development of a true component-based architecture has long been the holy grail in the software industry," said Fergal Mullen of Highland Capital Partners. "Highland not only recognized that M7 delivered on the promise, but also is confident that it can capitalize on the rapid growth of the application server market and the pent-up demand for higher productivity solutions."

M7 significantly reduces the complexity of building J2EE applications and cuts development time in half. It enables J2EE enterprises to integrate legacy systems and emerging web services into mission-critical applications.

"M7 addresses one of the most vital problems plaguing enterprises today -- the complexity of developing and integrating enterprise software," said Tim Haley, Founding Partner, Redpoint Ventures. "The M7 team has the vision and the experience to make a component-based software architecture a reality for thousands of companies worldwide."

About M7 Corporation

M7 Corporation is an enterprise software company that provides a component-based architecture to accelerate the development of J2EE web applications. By significantly reducing the time and cost to build web-based applications with J2EE, M7 enables Global 2000 organizations to rapidly develop and deploy critical applications based on the Java platform. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., M7 is privately held and venture backed by Highland Capital Partners, Redpoint Capital, CIR Ventures and Genevest. For additional information, visit the company's web site at www.m7.com.

About Highland Capital Partners

Highland Capital Partners is an early-stage venture firm focused on building companies in the communications, information technology and healthcare markets. Founded in 1988, Highland's strategy is to invest in exceptional people and provide them with the right mix of strategic guidance, management expertise, and hands-on leadership for building successful and enduring companies. With over $1.8 billion under management, Highland has invested in and worked to create such firms as Altiga Networks, Aspect Medical Systems, Ask Jeeves, Avid Technology, CheckFree, EXACT Sciences, HighGround Systems, Lycos, MapQuest, Ocular Networks, Odyssey Healthcare, Sybase and WebLine Communications. For more information, visit Highland's web site at www.hcp.com.

About Redpoint Ventures

With more than a combined 100 years operational, industry and technology investing experience, Redpoint Ventures is a leading venture capital firm that funds innovative companies with the potential to lead and change industries. Redpoint has a total of more than $1.6 billion under management, with investments in more than 60 companies to date. The firm was founded in 1999 by top partners each from Brentwood Venture Capital and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), two of the top ten Silicon Valley venture firms. Redpoint (www.redpoint.com) is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif. with offices in Los Angeles.