Carmel Ventures

NEW YORK, March 6, 2006—OpTier™, the leader in transaction workload management for the enterprise, today announced that it has raised an additional $7 million in follow-on funding from its current investors, Carmel Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Pitango Venture Capital.

Within the past few months, several Fortune Global 100 organizations have signed deals with OpTier and have deployed CoreFirst™ to dynamically assure IT business service levels and optimize resources across the enterprise with immediate positive results. CoreFirst provides transaction-level visibility into multi-tier workloads in testing and production. Organizations can, for the first time, both assure service levels and optimize the resources of their IT infrastructure to support business needs. Currently, the company has more than a dozen CoreFirst pilots in Fortune Global 100 organizations, with more customers signing up each quarter.

Since its product debut in 2005, OpTier has been acknowledged for its unique approach to transaction workload management with analyst recognition and industry awards. In February, CoreFirst was chosen as a 2006 Software and Information Industry Association CODiE Awards Finalist in the Best Software Testing Solution category; also in February, the company received the Datamation.com Product of the Year 2006 Award in the Network & Systems Management category; and OpTier was also listed as one of the “Companies to Watch” in Network Computing’s Survivor Guide to 2006. In addition, leading industry analysts have described the company as an important innovator with a unique offering in this space.

“When we first developed CoreFirst, we knew our technology could solve major business issues experienced by many large organizations. In a very short period of time, adoption of our software has exceeded expectations and continues to garner interest in the marketplace,” said Israel Mazin, CEO & Chairman of the Board at OpTier. “In order to expand our support, development and sales efforts we worked closely with our world-class investors Carmel Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Pitango Venture Capital to raise these additional funds in order to more aggressively pursue this great opportunity.”

OpTier™, the leader in Transaction Workload Management, develops software that dynamically assures IT business service levels and optimizes resources for the enterprise.

The company’s flagship product, CoreFirst, introduces a transactional context for IT service management that helps to eliminate performance issues and provide proven results that directly impact the bottom line. Established in 2002, OpTier is headquartered in New York, with sales offices throughout the US and in Europe. For further information, visit www.optier.com.

Founded in 2000 by pioneers and leaders of the Israeli high tech industry, Carmel Ventures is one of Israel’s leading information technology focused funds with $372 million under management.  Led by former entrepreneurs and executives of the software, communications and investment industries, Carmel provides active, hands-on support to its portfolio companies.  Carmel headquartered in Herzliya, Israel enjoys a worldwide network of industry, strategic and investment resources.  Carmel provides significant capital and support through the growth cycle of its portfolio companies and is recognized as a true company building fund in Israel. For more information, please visit www.carmelventures.com.

About Lightspeed
Lightspeed Venture Partners combines extensive venture capital and operating experience to assist entrepreneurs in creating industry-leading technology companies. Lightspeed manages $2.3 billion in funds and focuses on early-stage investments in the United States and Israel.

The partners of Lightspeed have contributed to the success of more than 275 companies since 1971, including AirGate PCS, Brocade, Ciena, Electronics for Imaging, FedEx, Galileo Technology, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Informatica, Kiva Software, Phone.com, Quantum Effect Devices, Sirocco Systems and Vantive.

Pitango Venture Capital, the leading venture capital firm in Israel, has been investing in technology entrepreneurs since 1993. With offices in Israel, California and London, Pitango currently manages over $1 billion in committed capital invested in more than 100 companies. Pitango specializes in providing long-term support and value-added services to its portfolio companies, with a focus on seed to late-stage companies in Communications, Network and Storage, Wireless and Mobile, Enterprise Software and Internet Infrastructure, and Life Sciences including Biotech and Medical Devices. More information about Pitango is available at: www.pitango.com.