Astaro Raises $6.2 Million in First Round Venture Funding;New York-based Insight Venture Partners and Munich-based Wellington Partners Co-Invest

Business Wire, May 12, 2003

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 2003

Astaro Corp., provider of the widely deployed all-in-one security gateway Astaro Security Linux, today announced it has raised a Series A round of $6.2 million from co-investors Insight Venture Partners of New York and Wellington Partners of Munich, Germany. Funding will be used to broaden its Linux-based product portfolio, expand its channel partner program and deepen its strategic alliances with hardware OEMs.

"We have grown from a startup to over 10,000 corporate networks in three years," says Jan Hichert, Astaro CEO. "This clearly demonstrates the high adoption rate of Linux-based enterprise security solutions. With these new resources we will be well positioned to scale our global channel partner program, and further extend our Linux-based security and network management solutions."

Astaro also announced that it has appointed to its Board of Directors Andreas Wiedeman from Hennerkes, Kirchdoerfer & Lorz in Stuttgart, Germany; Dr. Peter Levin, formerly with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Washington D.C.; Michael Triplett from Insight Venture Partners; and Patrick Meininger from Wellington Partners.

"Astaro has been a winner in a very difficult IT environment, which is a testament to the quality and scalability of its solution and its seasoned leadership," said Mike Triplett, principal, Insight Venture. "Astaro's revenue grew by over 100 percent in 2002, breakeven, and projecting significant operating growth in 2003. The funding will help the Astaro management team augment an already very successful business model."

About Astaro

Founded 2000 in Karlsruhe, Germany and now co-headquartered there and in Burlington, Mass., Astaro is the provider of Astaro Security Linux, one of the most effective, reliable, and affordable perimeter security products available. With more than 10,000 installations in over 60 countries, including organizations as EDS, Los Alamos National Labs and Stanford University, its solution integrates firewall, VPN, content filtering, anti-spam, URL filtering and virus protection on a single, rapidly configured, automatically updated "software appliance". Astaro builds its products on cutting-edge Open Source software.

About Wellington Partners

Formed in 1991, Wellington Partners invests venture capital in young start-ups throughout Europe in the fields of information and communication technology and life science and numbers among Europe's most successful early-stage financiers. To date, the Wellington Partners I fund has already returned 1.66 times its subscribed capital. The Munich-based company today manages a total fund volume of EUR 265 million, with EUR 85 million of this funding available for new investments. Wellington Partners is presently invested in over 20 companies, including Codetoys (Finland), Covast (Netherlands), EnOcean (Germany), Garderos (Germany) and Maxxio (Germany). Serving as the lead or co-lead investor, the company has already accompanied such successful technology vendors as chipbroker ACG and biotech player Actelion in going public. http://www.wellington.de.

About Insight Venture Partners

Insight Venture Partners, with approximately $1 billions in funds under management, is the leading venture capital firm specializing in enterprise software companies. Insight invests in entrepreneurial companies developing technology-based solutions for the corporate enterprise. Headquartered in New York, Insight has taken a global approach to e-commerce investing in a market where speed, domain expertise, and the ability to execute are the foundations of success. More information on Insight is available at http://www.insightpartners.com.

U.S. Address: Astaro Corp. 67 South Bedford St., Suite 400W. Burlington, MA, USA

Tel. (781) 229-5880

E-Mail: info@astaro.com

Germany Address: Astaro AG . Jahnstr. 1 . 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany.

Tel. +49 721 / 490 069 0.

E-Mail: info@astaro.com.