El Dorado Ventures Closes Seventh Early-Stage Venture Capital Fund; Scott Irwin Named General Partner

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 3, 2005--El Dorado Ventures, a leading venture capital firm that specializes in early-stage investing, today announced the close of its seventh venture capital fund, which will make seed and early-stage investments in the semiconductors and systems, communications, software and services sectors. The firm also named Scott Irwin a General Partner.

El Dorado Ventures VII (EDV VII) is a $200 million venture capital fund that will be invested in approximately 20 new ventures over the next three years. El Dorado Ventures (EDV) specializes in helping entrepreneurs start and build new market-leading technology companies and has an 18-year track record of success, including investments in Cyras Systems, EarthLink, Efficient Networks, Novellus and NuSpeed Internet Systems. The firm has more than $700 million in capital under management.

“Tom Peterson and I have been investing together for 18 years, and Charles Beeler and Scott Irwin have worked with us for more than five years. We're cycle-tested and one of the more experienced teams in early-stage investing.”

EDV VII has four General Partners: Shanda Bahles, Charles Beeler, Tom Peterson and Scott Irwin, who joined the firm in 2000 and was promoted to General Partner for EDV VII. Gary Kalbach, who co-founded El Dorado Ventures in 1986, remains with the firm as Founding Partner but will not play an active role in investing EDV VII.

"Scott's promotion and Gary's decision to step back from active investing represent a successful generational transition for El Dorado Ventures," said Shanda Bahles, General Partner of El Dorado Ventures. She added, "Tom Peterson and I have been investing together for 18 years, and Charles Beeler and Scott Irwin have worked with us for more than five years. We're cycle-tested and one of the more experienced teams in early-stage investing."

"We expect to invest EDV VII in the same broad technology sectors in which El Dorado has demonstrated its ability to find and build successful new technology ventures," commented Scott Irwin, General Partner of El Dorado Ventures. "Within those categories, we see large opportunities in areas such as on-demand software, personalized digital media, wireless convergence, and technology-neglected industries," he added.

About Scott Irwin

Scott Irwin focuses on enterprise software and infrastructure investments. At El Dorado, he has been actively involved with several EDV investments, including Nextance, TriActive, Sana Security, MediaQ (acquired by nVidia) and Torrex (acquired by Applied Materials). He serves on the boards of GetActive and Skytide.

Prior to El Dorado, Scott held software engineering and product management positions with Accenture, where he developed and managed enterprise software products targeting the energy industry. While at Accenture, Scott co-authored the firm's guide to Internet technologies in 1998, which was distributed to all Accenture's 65,000 employees worldwide. His early career experience was with the communications systems division of Rockwell International, later acquired by Alcatel.

Scott received a Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he was a Venture Fellow and Welsh Scholar.

About El Dorado Ventures

El Dorado Ventures (EDV) is a leading early-stage venture capital firm with an 18-year track record of success, including early investments in Cyras Systems, EarthLink, Efficient Networks, Novellus and NuSpeed Internet Systems. Numerous EDV portfolio companies have gone public or been acquired by major technology companies including Ciena, Cisco Systems, nVidia, Siemens, Texas Instruments and Yahoo/Inktomi. Entrepreneurs see EDV as a trusted investment partner that shares their vision and plays an active role in their success. More information is available at www.eldorado.com.