June 2, 2003
RackSaver Closes Series A Equity Round with $14 Million in Funds
SAN DIEGO, CA
RackSaver, the leading provider of high-density individual rack-optimized servers, blade servers and supercomputer clusters announced today that it has closed its Series A equity financing with a total amount of $14 million. The Series A round was co-led by Celerity Partners and Voyager Capital. RackSaver will use the new capital to extend research and development of its Super Compute and Ultra Dense Blade, Rack-mount, and Server Cluster product lines and to further expand sales and marketing globally. Also announced today, Mark Benham, Managing Partner of Celerity Partners, and Bill McAleer and Curtis Feeny, managing directors at Voyager Capital, have been named to RackSaver’s Board of Directors. In addition, Ed Harper, former chairman of the board for Network Associates, was also added to the board as an independent director.
“RackSaver has brought to the market high-performance computing power at a competitive cost. Through RackSaver’s superior technology and service, customers such as Shell Oil, Industrial Light and Magic, a division of George Lucas Ltd., AMD, Nvidia, ATI and Pixar are fast benefiting from the company’s quick and powerful, high-density and flexible solutions,” stated Mark Benham. “The company, which addresses the high growth blade server market, has experienced over the last three years, and continues to experience explosive and profitable revenue growth in the context of a difficult hardware environment.”
“We invested in RackSaver because the company is led by a management team with more than 30 years of experience in server design and manufacturing, and the solution on the market is filling a critical need for companies whose businesses are dependent on strict time-to-market requirements,” remarked Curtis Feeny. “In the last decade, RackSaver has continued to gain traction with its high-density rack-optimized servers in numerous industry segments including life sciences, oil and gas, high-technology/semiconductors, finance, higher education, and federal government institutions.”
“Upon our introduction of RackSaver to Celerity and Voyager, it was apparent that both firms had a keen understanding of RackSaver’s market niche and opportunity,” commented Larry Weissman, managing director of New York-based Cahn Capital Corp., investment bankers to Racksaver. “Celerity and Voyager responded immediately by not only investing $14 million in growth capital but also assembled an impressive group of seasoned industry executives to serve the Board of Directors and Board of Advisors which management is excited about tapping into.”
“We are excited to partner with the Celerity Partners and Voyager Capital teams. Both venture capital firms have the experience and knowledge in building and growing businesses and will provide us operational insight and help us drive strategy to move our product into more market segments as well as into the enterprise grade servers and workstations,” said Dave Driggers, chief executive officer and president of RackSaver. “RackSaver has garnered the top position in the HPC (high-performance computing) segments and we will be leveraging our leadership position to dominate the financial services, banking, database, and the coveted enterprise segments.”
RackSaver Cluster and Server Product Lines
RackSaver’s expertise in patent pending cluster design is demonstrated in the wide variety of cluster options. The BladeRack comes in two flavors; UltraDense and MegaDense. These models cover a range of node counts from 88 nodes to 22 nodes in three different rack heights. The new HIVE cluster is a twist on the BladeRack design, which is rack-optimized or can be used as a standalone pedestal. The HIVE comes with 8 or 11 nodes and is equipped with InfiniBand(r) high-speed interconnects. RackSaver also utilizes the 1U RS-1100 to create the RSC-4432, which is one of the most flexible and powerful clusters available.
RackSaver’s server line is sure to meet your most demanding computing requirements. A full line of 1U, 2U, and 4U servers are available with all AMD and Intel processor options. A wide variety of options including removable hard drives, RAID options, CD-ROM/Floppy, custom logo designs, as well as 32- and 64-bit technology are all available.
About Celerity Partners
Celerity Partners is a private equity fund whose objective is to build businesses, in partnership with management, to preeminence in their respective markets. Since its inception in September 1995, Celerity has invested in 40 companies with an aggregate transaction value in excess of $2 billion. Celerity currently manages approximately $200 million of equity capital and has offices in Los Angeles and Menlo Park, CA. For more information about Celerity, visit www.celeritypartners.com or call (650) 233-8250.
About Voyager Capital
Voyager Capital is Seattle’s leading information technology venture capital firm, providing entrepreneurs with the resources, experience, and connections to build successful companies. Voyager invests in early stage enterprise software and services, Internet infrastructure, and wireless companies. Voyager’s managing directors bring experience from a variety of senior management, business development, and venture capital roles. Voyager’s advisory board members and investors provide important contacts for startups, and are among the most successful information technology executives and investors in Seattle and Silicon Valley. With $265M under management, Voyager’s investments include Arkivio, aQuantive, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQNT), Capital Stream, ClearCommerce, Contivo, FHP Wireless, Kadiri, NetPodium (acquired by Akamai Technologies) Qsent, SeeCommerce, and Tegic Communications (acquired by America Online). Voyager is headquartered in Seattle with an office on Sand Hill road in Menlo Park, CA. For more info, visit Voyager’s web site at www.voyagercapital.com or telephone (206) 438-1800.
About Cahn Capital Corp.
Cahn Capital Corp., a NASD member investment and merchant-banking firm, specializes in structuring and placing capital for growth companies. Cahn assists both public and private companies in structuring creative solutions for various working capital and corporate financial needs. Cahn supports clients in the development and implementation of financial and strategic objectives, is successful in both raising debt and equity capital for companies and in providing designated financial advisory services. Cahn Capital is based in New York and can be reached at (212) 355-0296.
About RackSaver
RackSaver is the premiere provider of high-density individual rack-optimized servers, blade servers and supercomputing clusters. RackSaver has been based in San Diego for over five years and is committed to providing custom built solutions for virtually any market needing high-performance computing power at the lowest possible cost. To learn more about RackSaver and its unique supercomputing cluster solutions please visit www.racksaver.com or call (858) 874-3800.