Company to deliver a platform that enables software appliances for application developers

RALEIGH, NC (January 24, 2006) — rPath, provider of the first platform for creating and maintaining Linux software appliances, today announced that the company has closed a $6.4 million round of venture financing. The Series A round was led by North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners out of Boston, MA.

“We have backed many companies who have experienced the pain of configuring Linux for specific applications and have often seen companies that cannot deploy and support open source on a cost-effective basis,” said Michael Skok, general partner with North Bridge Venture Partners. “We believe that rPath is providing the right solution for these problems and are very excited about the company's potential.”

“Linux and open source are changing the dynamics of the software industry,” said Billy Marshall, founder and CEO with rPath. “Our mission at rPath is to help software developers take full advantage of open source technology to deliver more value to their customers.”

The company plans to use this capital to extend the market reach and penetration of its products in the rapidly growing Linux market. The product, rBuilder, is used by application developers to combine a software application with a streamlined version of system software to create a software appliance. Application customers can quickly and easily deploy the software appliance on industry standard hardware or as a virtual machine, greatly simplifying application installation and management.

“The software appliance approach makes perfect sense for end-users who are interested in simplifying the deployment and management of applications,’ said Gary Chen, SMB analyst with Yankee Group. “With this model, users are sheltered from operating system issues and are able to quickly and easily receive the value of the applications.”

rPath Founders and Management Team

rPath was founded earlier this year by seasoned Linux professionals, Erik Troan, Chief Technology Officer and Billy Marshall, CEO. Prior to rPath, Erik was the Vice President of Engineering at Red Hat, where he led the development of Red Hat Linux and key technologies such as RPM and Anaconda. He is also the author of Linux Application Development. Erik holds B.S. degrees in Computer Science and Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University and a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Virginia.

Prior to founding rPath, Billy served as Red Hat’s Vice President of North American Sales, during which time Red Hat’s enterprise business experienced extraordinary growth. Prior to his sales position, Billy conceived and oversaw the launch of Red Hat Network, the platform that enabled Red Hat's subscription revenue model. Billy holds an Engineering degree from Georgia Tech as well as MS degrees in Management and Engineering from MIT.

Other key management additions include Keith Boswell as Vice President of Marketing and Dave Welker as Director of Finance.

About rPath

rPath provides rBuilder and rPath Linux, the first platform for creating and maintaining software appliances. Using rPath’s technology, application developers can evolve their business from delivering an application to providing a complete solution via software appliances. For customers, software appliances bring the simplicity and value of Software as a Service (SaaS) to on-premise application deployments. The company is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information, please visit: http://www.rpath.com.

About North Bridge Venture Partners

North Bridge Venture Partners is an active, early-stage venture capital fund based in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Our definition of active, early-stage investing is quite simple: more than capital is required to achieve business success. For North Bridge, success is derived through a partnership with entrepreneurs that produces industry leading companies in large emerging markets. Historically, the firm’s partners have played a significant role in organizing, starting, and building successful companies. For more information, please visit: http://www.nbvp.com.

About General Catalyst Partners

General Catalyst Partners is a private equity firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs and technical founders who are building the software solution and technology platform companies that will lead innovation and transform industries. Founded in 2000, General Catalyst Partners leverages its principals’ extensive operational, business development and technological expertise to provide portfolio companies with a catalyst for success through business-building and partnership development assistance. General Catalyst is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit: http://www.generalcatalyst.com.