DFJ and Cisco Announce 16 Finalists in Global Business Plan Competition

Market Wire, June, 2009

Leading early-stage venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced the 16 finalists in their first co-sponsored Global Business Plan Competition for university and business school students. The finalists, whose business plans address a diverse group of issues from efficient and affordable web-scale computing to early cancer detection, will be competing from their respective geographic areas via Cisco TelePresence (TM) on June 30, 2009. The winning team will receive a minimum seed investment of $250,000.

"Clearly global innovation doesn't stop for recessions," said Tim Draper, managing director, DFJ. "These promising candidates are reminding us that there are pioneering companies out there, even in difficult times, and we hope that one of these teams creates the next Skype, Google, Facebook, Baidu or Cisco. This competition fosters a culture of entrepreneurship that has a lasting impact, and its benefits are felt not just by the winning team but by all participants. We look forward to continuing meaningful ties with all of these young entrepreneurs in the future."

The plans of the 16 finalists, many of which have already won local university competitions, were selected from thousands of eligible business plans in nine countries across the globe. The selection was based on various criteria including quality of management team, technical innovation, addressable market size, competitive positioning, barriers, capital efficiency, and financial projections. The majority of the finalists are still in the early stages of business development. In addition to the financial investment awarded to the winner, both DFJ and Cisco will assist the winner and finalists in leading the next wave of disruptive technologies by providing mentorship and professional assessments regarding their submissions.

"Cisco has always supported and nurtured entrepreneurial vision, in good times as well as in difficult times, and we're excited to help evaluate the dynamic technologies and business plans put forth by these talented finalists," said Hilton Romanski, vice president of corporate development for Cisco. "The global reach of this competition emphasizes the reality that connecting great ideas and the people who have them is no longer constrained by geographic boundaries. These 16 finalists will travel to a single boardroom in Silicon Valley without a single one of them having to physically leave their home country. This is the power of Cisco TelePresence."

The competition will use Cisco TelePresence to allow the finalists to present their business plans to a San Jose-based panel of seasoned investors from DFJ, its Global Network of Funds and Cisco. Cisco TelePresence enables collaboration through a live, face-to-face network communications experience where participants feel as though they are sitting in the same room even though they may be located thousands of miles apart.

Competitors and the media will be invited to view the competition via simulcast beginning at 8 a.m. PDT on June 30, and the winner will be announced at 6:30 p.m. PDT the same day.

Please contact Kristin Carvell ( kcarvell@cisco.com ) at Cisco if you are a member of the media interested in attending the competition or viewing it via a live webcast.

Finalists hail from 15 different schools in six countries. The complete list is as follows:

Name of     Company      University           Business Plan Summary
Company     Location                      The finalist's business plan is
                                         based on technology that provides:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
80 Legs       USA      Rice University   A grid computing system for
                                         running applications that need
                                         to analyze massive amounts of web
                                         content quickly and affordably.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Audiallo      USA      University of     Power-efficient, acoustic
                       Michigan          processors that improve speech
                                         perception for hearing aids.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biological    USA      UC San Diego      Point-of-care multi-cancer
Dynamics                                 screening tool that detects early
                                         cancer biomarker directly from
                                         whole blood.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digiceipts    USA      Cornell           A paperless receipt solution that
                       University        enables consumers to manage
                                         receipts online and provides
                                         product-level market data to
                                         consumer product companies.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DripTech      USA      Stanford          Innovative drip irrigation systems
                       University        that can be manufactured and
                                         profitably distributed to small
                                         farmers in developing countries.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Five Minutes  China    University of     Innovative online social games
                       Southern          including Happy Farm, the number
                       California        one social game in China.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mengtian      China    Fudan University  A fast-acting, low-cost and
Biotech                                  environmentally friendly process
                                         for treating papermaking
                                         wastewater.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Husk Power  India/USA  University of     Miniature power-plants that cost-
                       Virginia, Darden  effectively convert rice husks
                       School of         into electricity, serving off-grid
                       Business          rural Indian villages.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
iCore         Russia   Moscow Institute  OS-level virtualization software
                       of Physics and    enabling multiple secure high-
                       Technology        performance virtual machines on a
                                         Microsoft Windows desktop.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Innoz         India    LBS College of    An SMS text messaging interface
                       Engineering       for trivia and other information
                                         for 300 million Indian cell phone
                                         subscribers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mercardi      USA      University of     An online marketplace for the
                       Chicago,          sale or exchange of unwanted gift
                       Booth School      cards.
                       of Business
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PowerSave     Brazil   Federal           An advanced smart-home technology
                       University of     platform to monitor and interact
                       Rio de Janeiro    with appliances and the electric
                                         grid for the efficient use of
                                         energy in the home.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Properat      USA      Stanford          Assistance for enterprise users to
                       University        manage the growing volume of
                                         e-mail and to seamlessly embrace
                                         new messaging media.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trauma        USA      University of     The first and only synthetic
Solutions              Maryland          hemostatic material capable of
                                         simultaneously inducing blood
                                         clotting and delivering
                                         therapeutics.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yubitech      Israel   Tel-Aviv          A mobile thin client and server
                       University        platform for migrating any
                                         software application to any
                                         smartphone, regardless of
                                         operating system and handset type.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZeroWatt      USA      UC Irvine         A significant reduction in the
                                         power consumption of analog-to-
                                         digital converters, a key
                                         component of essential devices
                                         such as cell phones, laptops and
                                         biomedical implants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------