Spiceworks Secures $5 Million Series A Funding Round; Company Aims to Transform IT Management Software for Small and Medium Organizations

Business Wire, June 16, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas -- Spiceworks(TM), Inc., today announced that it completed a $5 million Series A financing round led by Austin Ventures. The funding round comes on the heels of the recent Spiceworks company debut and the launch of its "Spice IT Up" software evaluation program. The program invites select IT managers to assist Spiceworks in developing its soon-to-be launched software, which is designed to solve the specific network and systems management needs of smaller organizations. The new funding round will be used to support the company's ongoing software development efforts and to expand sales and marketing activities.

In addition to securing its recent funding round, Spiceworks announced that John Thornton, General Partner of Austin Ventures, has joined the company's board of directors. Mr. Thornton and Austin Ventures have a track record of identifying and investing early on in some of the world's leading network and systems management software companies, including Tivoli Systems, which was acquired by IBM in 1996; Dazel Corp., which was purchased in 1999 by HP; and Waveset, which was acquired in 2003 by Sun Microsystems.

"Spiceworks has developed a new class of software that we believe will disrupt and transform the small and medium business segment of the IT management software market," said John Thornton. "The company's innovative approach to software development and delivery, combined with its top-notch team of network and systems management pioneers, will change the rules of how IT management software is viewed by this important and underserved group."

"After conducting extensive research of the small and medium business market, we realized the needs of these organizations were not being met by traditional network and systems management products," said Scott Abel, CEO of Spiceworks. "Our goal is to change that by collaborating closely with customers early on to develop a solution that's right for them. With the support of Austin Ventures and our talented staff of engineers and industry veterans, we believe we can make this happen with the release our first product later this summer."

Spiceworks was established by Scott Abel, Jay Hallberg, Francis Sullivan and Greg Kattawar -- software industry veterans with a track record in building leading technology and systems management products. Over the past 25 years they have started three companies and worked for industry leaders, including Tivoli, Apple and NeXT.

About Spiceworks

Spiceworks was founded by network and systems management software pioneers. The privately held company is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is funded by Austin Ventures. For more information on Spiceworks, visit www.spiceworks.com.

Spiceworks is a trademark of Spiceworks, Inc. All other names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.