Emergence Capital Names Jeffrey E. Stiefler as Venture Partner

Leading Venture Firm in SaaS Adds Former Digital Insight Leader to Its Team

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Emergence Capital Partners, the leading venture capital firm focused on early and growth-stage Technology-Enabled Services companies, today announced the addition of Jeffrey Stiefler as a venture partner. Stiefler was recently chairman and CEO of Digital Insight, sold to Intuit for $1.4 billion in 2007. He was formerly president of American Express and CEO of IDS Financial Services.

“It’s clear Emergence has built the leading franchise for venture capital in SaaS”

"Jeff’s unique knowledge of the financial services sector and experience with growing and managing billion-dollar public SaaS businesses will be invaluable to our firm and our portfolio companies,” said Jason Green, general partner of Emergence. “Emergence is focused on helping to build SaaS market leaders and we are thrilled to have a proven executive like Jeff to expand our team and network.”

Emergence has defined a new category of venture capital investing called Technology-Enabled Services ("TES"), which includes Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS"), business services, consumer Internet services and information services. Emergence partners were early investors in Salesforce.com (CRM), as well as other market-leading TES companies such as SuccessFactors (SFSF), HireRight (HIRE), aQuantive (AQNT/MSFT), DoubleClick (DCLK/GOOG), Ask Jeeves (ASKJ/IAC) and WebTV. Through its close association with Salesforce.com and other SaaS leaders, Emergence Capital Partners is working to accelerate the movement of all software to the on-demand model and is championing a new approach to venture capital investing.

"It’s clear Emergence has built the leading franchise for venture capital in SaaS,” said Stiefler. “I look forward to bringing my network and experience in building successful businesses to Emergence and to helping them build a portfolio of market leaders.”

Jeff Stiefler joins Emergence Capital from Digital Insight, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intuit Corporation. Digital Insight provides outsourced online banking services to middle-market financial institutions. Stiefler joined Digital Insight as the Company’s chairman, president, and CEO in August, 2003. During his tenure, the Company’s stock price and market capitalization tripled, driven by rapid and consistent growth in revenue and operating income. In February of 2007, Digital Insight was acquired by Intuit for $1.4 billion.

Stiefler was president and a director of American Express Company and president and CEO of IDS Financial Services Corporation (which became American Express Financial Advisors and then Ameriprise). During his tenure at IDS, the Company’s operating income increased tenfold, driven primarily by rapid growth in the number and productivity of the sales organization. Before American Express, Stiefler held a variety of positions with Citicorp and Boise Cascade Corporation.

Jeff Stiefler has served as director of a number of publicly and privately held companies, including American Express Company, Digital Insight, LPL, National Computer Systems, Education Lending Group, CRC Health and TeleSpectrum, as well as philanthropic institutions including The Salk Institute, Minnesota Business Partnership, Minneapolis Symphony and Carlson School of Management. He received his BA from Williams College and MBA from Harvard Business School.

About Emergence Capital Partners

Emergence Capital Partners, based in San Mateo, Calif., is the leading venture capital firm focused on early and growth-stage Technology-Enabled Services companies. Its mission is to help build market leaders in partnership with great entrepreneurs. Emergence partners have funded and helped build more than 35 TES companies, more than any other early-stage venture firm. Emergence Capital has assets of over $325 million under management. For more information, visit www.emcap.com.