StrikeIron Secures $5 Million in New FundingAscent Venture Partners Leads Series C Financing to Drive Future Growth and Widespread Market AdoptionResearch Triangle Park, NC. – March 13, 2007 – StrikeIron Inc., the leading provider of live data and business functionality over the Web today announced it has closed a $5 million Series C round of venture capital funding; adding Ascent Venture Partners to its list of investors. Returning investors in the round include The Aurora Funds, Inc. and NC IDEA. The company has received $9.6 million in funding since its launch in 2003. StrikeIron will use this round of funding to expand sales and marketing initiatives, accelerate platform and product development efforts, and further strategic partner programs. The company will also continue to build on the market success of the StrikeIron Web Services Marketplace, which has been adopted by thousands of users and a broad range of institutions and enterprises, including over a dozen Fortune 1000 corporations, including BEA, IBM, Honda Europe, D&B, Time Warner, Siemens, Nike, Kenwood, and Exclusive Resorts. In addition to the funding, StrikeIron announced that Matt Fates, principal with Ascent Venture Partners has joined StrikeIron's board of directors. "We believe that StrikeIron is poised for tremendous growth in the SOA and data services markets. With their groundbreaking Web Services Marketplace, the company is offering unique functionality that is changing how companies build applications", said Fates. "They have created the ability for organizations to integrate live data into any type of application in a simple, consistent manner. In addition, the pay-as-you-go model is preferred by today's IT organizations that are looking to reduce complexity while cutting costs and increasing capabilities." The StrikeIron Web Services Marketplace provides the world's largest variety of reliable and trusted commercial Web services. The Marketplace is built on the StrikeIron Internet Service Bus, a data distribution platform, which allows developers, publishers and partners to meet the complex challenge of participating in a Web-based ecosystem including standardized data distribution, authentication, billing and accounting, usage tracking and reporting, security, and integrated tools and services. NC IDEA and The Aurora Funds also continued their investment in StrikeIron, recognizing the significant market opportunity for commercial Web services to access real-time data and the persistent need for SOA tools for building on-demand applications. Analysts estimate that over 80 percent of IT projects will involve Web services by 2008 and the market is expected to hit about $15 billion by 2009. "StrikeIron's success is impressive and the company possesses all of the crucial elements for continued growth: a strong technology platform, an experienced executive team with a vision of the future of SOA, alongside a strong customer base providing feedback for future innovation", said Scott Albert, managing general partner of Aurora Funds. "We're delighted to have Ascent Venture Partners lead this round of investment, along with the continued support of both Aurora Funds and NC IDEA", said StrikeIron CEO and President Bob Brauer. "This is a substantial endorsement for the company that validates both the impact of our technology and the progress we've made thus far." About Ascent Venture PartnersSince 1985, Ascent Venture Partners has been dedicated to partnering with seasoned management teams to build successful technology companies. Focused on the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions, investments are sized from $2 to $8 million. Ascent is an active investor, offering strategic advice, leveraging its broad network and working patiently with portfolio companies to overcome challenges. Ascent takes pride in the number of entrepreneurs who return to work with the Ascent team on multiple investment opportunities. Ascent has raised four venture funds totaling $400 million and has invested in over 90 companies. Ascent is currently investing out of the firm's fourth fund, a $140 million fund launched in 2004. More information is available at www.ascentvp.com. About The Aurora FundsFounded in 1994, The Aurora Funds is a venture capital firm that provides capital and strategic help to entrepreneurs with early stage life sciences and information technology companies in the Southeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. The firm has more than $200 million of total capital under management and is currently investing out of its fifth fund. The firm has the capacity to invest between $4 million to $8 million throughout the life cycle of an investment. More information is available at www.aurorafunds.com. About NC IDEANC IDEA provides grants, loans and traditional venture capital to help young companies between seed funding and Series A financing. NC IDEA further supports these companies by leveraging its strong, strategic partnerships and alliances to help the companies through research phases, business challenges and growth goals. NC IDEA is committed to supporting North Carolina's economic development by ensuring young, innovative companies grow, create jobs and become contributing business leaders. For more information, visit www.ncidea.org. About StrikeIronStrikeIron is the leader in facilitating the consumption and distribution of live data and business functionality over the Web. The company's breakthrough Web Services Marketplace provides a technology platform, micro-transaction management and a consistent interface across many XML-based Web services from multiple, diverse sources. This allows end-users and ISVs to customize and integrate external data sources and additional external functionality into enterprise, Web, and composite applications. Currently, StrikeIron provides over 100 live data sources and business functions as well as a set of products and tools to simplify and accelerate the consumption of data such as StrikeIron's SOA Express, enabling business users to access live data via front office applications. StrikeIron services over 500 customers and partners such as BEA, IBM, Honda Europe, D&B, Time Warner, Siemens, Nike, Kenwood, and Exclusive Resorts. For more information, visit www.strikeiron.com. ### StrikeIron, StrikeIron Web Services Marketplace, StrikeIron Marketplace Powered and Web Services Marketplace are trademarks of StrikeIron, Inc. 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