Funding led by new investor Summit Partners and joined by Nokia Growth Partners

March 4, 2010

5 Min Read

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO and BOSTON, Mar 03, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Cloudmark, Inc., the global leader in carrier-grade messaging security, today announced it has secured $23 million in a round of funding led by new investor Summit Partners and joined by Nokia Growth Partners, the venture capital investing arm of Nokia /quotes/comstock/13*!nok/quotes/nls/nok (NOK 13.90, +0.39, +2.89%) , the world's leading mobile phone supplier. Existing investors Ignition Partners and Industry Ventures also participated in the round. The new funding was used to assist in Cloudmark's acquisition of Bizanga, Ltd. and is the first investment Cloudmark has raised since 2004.

"Today's carriers must deploy the best defenses against emerging and sophisticated messaging threats," said Hugh McCartney, chief executive officer, Cloudmark. "Our goal is to leverage the recently acquired messaging platform and Cloudmark's proven world-class messaging security technology to provide the industry's most powerful, unified messaging security solution for operators. We are delighted to have raised new capital from both Summit Partners and Nokia Growth Partners, and their support and global experience will help guide Cloudmark as we continue our growth into new and existing markets."

Cloudmark's carrier-grade software solution delivers the industry's fastest and most accurate spam, phishing and virus protection. Through its unique combination of Advanced Message Fingerprinting(TM) technology, real-time corroborated feedback from Cloudmark's Global Threat Network(TM)system, automated, anonymous traffic analysis and dedicated security analysts, Cloudmark detects messaging abuse with up to 99 percent accuracy and near-zero false positives.

"We are very pleased to lead this investment in Cloudmark to help support the expansion of the industry's leading messaging security solution for high-performance networks," said Greg Goldfarb, a principal with Summit Partners, who will join the Cloudmark Board of Directors. "At Summit Partners, we have been investing for 25 years in profitable, innovative leaders in the security software industry and it is always rare to find a company that is both a technology leader and service leader. The volume of messaging abuse and security threats continues to skyrocket across wired and wireless networks. Cloudmark's technology increases the performance, reliability and security of its customers' messaging infrastructure, while decreasing management costs, and Cloudmark's service and responsiveness allows its customers to sleep well at night."

"The need for carriers to protect their mobile networks against messaging attacks has never been more critical, and it is essential for ensuring a positive experience for their customers," said John Gardner, managing partner at Nokia Growth Partners. "Cloudmark is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this demand based on its ability to deliver carrier-grade messaging security solutions with unrivaled accuracy, scalability and performance. Nokia Growth Partners invests in best-of-breed mobile services and technology companies with significant potential for future growth and industry leadership. Cloudmark fulfills that profile, and is in an excellent position to enable mobile communications service providers to reduce the complexity within their networks, grow their customer base and maximize revenues."

About Summit Partners

Summit Partners is a growth equity investor that provides private equity and venture capital to rapidly growing companies. Founded in 1984, Summit has raised more than $11 billion in capital and has provided growth equity, recapitalization and management buyout financing to more than 300 growing companies across a range of industries and geographies. Summit Partners seeks outstanding management teams that have built their companies to profitability and market leadership. Notable investments in the security market include, McAfee /quotes/comstock/13*!mfe/quotes/nls/mfe (MFE 39.68, -0.47, -1.17%) , Postini /quotes/comstock/15*!goog/quotes/nls/goog (GOOG 546.36, +5.30, +0.98%) , SafeBoot (acquired by McAfee), and Sybari Software /quotes/comstock/15*!msft/quotes/nls/msft (MSFT 28.50, +0.04, +0.14%) . Summit Partners has offices in Boston, Palo Alto and London. For more information, visit www.summitpartners.com.

About Nokia Growth Partners

Nokia Growth Partners is a global investor for growth stage companies in the mobile industry. With $350M under management, Nokia Growth Partners invests in companies and entrepreneurs that are changing the global face of mobility, communications and the Internet. Nokia Growth Partners also works closely with Nokia to provide a superior return on investment while increasing the likelihood and magnitude of success in the companies in which it invests. Nokia Growth Partners has offices in Menlo Park California; Helsinki Finland; Gurgaon India and Beijing China. See www.nokiagrowthpartners.com for more information.

About Cloudmark

Cloudmark, Inc. is a global leader in carrier-grade messaging security, delivering the industry's fastest, most accurate and comprehensive real-time spam, virus and phishing protection for fixed, mobile and social networks. The Cloudmark suite of security solutions simplifies and advances the management of messaging abuse, increasing network utilization and reducing infrastructure costs. Cloudmark's patented solutions combine Advanced Message Fingerprinting(TM) technology based on innovative, highly efficient algorithms, a Global Threat Network(TM) consisting of trusted reporters across the globe, real-time, automated analysis of traffic and content patterns, along with security research expertise, to provide real-time security intelligence and filtering across carrier networks. Cloudmark solutions protect more than one billion subscribers for the world's largest carrier networks, including more than 75 percent of all major service providers in the United States and Japan. Cloudmark's customers include Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, EarthLink, NEC Biglobe, NTT OCN, Swisscom, Tele2, Thus, and XS4ALL (KPN), as well as leading hosting providers and global social networking companies such as MySpace. Cloudmark is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London, Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong. For more information, visit http://www.cloudmark.com.

Cloudmark and the Cloudmark logo are registered trademarks of Cloudmark, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

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