Chisholm Private Capital Participates in $4.5 Follow-on Round for Carrius Technologies

DALLAS (October 6, 2003) — Chisholm Private Capital Partners announces today it participated in a $4.5 million investment in Carrius Technologies of Richardson, Texas, a developer of switching platforms that enable enhanced voice and data services to be deployed over traditional circuit-based networks as well as next generation packet-based networks. This was a follow-on round to a Series A financing which was completed in January 2003. In addition to Chisholm, existing investors Star Ventures, CenterPoint Ventures and STARTech Early Ventures also participated in this round.

"We have evaluated a number of telecom start-ups for investment, and were impressed with the Carrius vision and strategies to address both the near- and long-term needs of telecom service providers," says Jeff Williams, General Partner of Chisholm General Partner, and head of the firm’s Texas operations. "Their market entry strategy addresses the immediate needs of enhanced network services providers who require next generation IP-capable programmable switching platforms such as Carrius integrated Converged Services Platform."

According to Williams, the Carrius integrated Converged Services Platform (iCSP) evolves to Access Gateways that can be deployed by the ILECs to extend functionality to IP endpoints and provide connectivity to both the Class 5 switches as well as the NG Softswitch networks through standard APIs.

"We’re in trials with customers in the U.S. and Europe, with additional trials planned for the next quarter. This additional funding enables us to accelerate our development program and expand our business infrastructure," says Allen Adams, Chairman and CEO of Carrius. "The leadership provided by Chisholm, and the participation of our current investors in this funding reflect a vote of confidence in the strength of our vision, effectiveness of our market strategy, and our ability to continue to successfully execute our plan."

Chisholm, with offices in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, is typically the first institutional backer of its portfolio companies with investments of up to $5 million through the life of the venture. Part of the strategy moving into Texas is to look at later-stage deals where the firm can invest $3 million to $4 million in preferred stock or up to $4.5 million in a mezzanine transaction.

"Chisholm is fast becoming a valuable venture capital partner in Texas, building on their success with numerous Oklahoma companies in the high-tech and life sciences industries," says Terry Rock, General Partner with CenterPoint Ventures. "Carrius, together with biotech start-up Inoveon, represents our ongoing commitment to work with Chisholm, which has an excellent track record for identifying viable businesses in this region and helping them succeed."

# # #

To learn more about Chisholm Private Capital Partners, please visit www.chisholmvc.com.