Austin Ventures Announces Partnership with Jeffrey Dachis to Create Social Enterprise...

Austin Ventures Announces Partnership with Jeffrey Dachis to Create Social Enterprise Software and Services Company

Digital Services Pioneer Secures $50 Million Commitment
AUSTIN, Texas--(Business Wire)--
Austin Ventures, ("AV"), one of the nation's largest venture
capital firms, announced today that it has entered into a partnership
with Jeffrey Dachis to form a new company which will focus on creating
an industry leading strategic consulting practice and an enterprise
class Social Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) suite. AV has committed up
to $50 Million in capital to support management's strategy to build
and grow organically and through acquisition. Mr. Dachis will serve as
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for the new firm.

Prior to establishing the new firm, Dachis' leadership and vision
helped establish the digital services industry when, as co-founder,
CEO, President and Chairman of Razorfish, Dachis' profitably grew the
company revenues to over $250 Million, expanded its talent base from 2
to 2,200 employees with offices in nine countries, completed over 25
M&A transactions, lead its IPO which raised $55 Million, and
catapulted Razorfish's public valuation to over $5 Billion. Over the
last decade, as the recognized leader in the digital services
industry, Razorfish has won numerous performance, design, and
professional service awards, continuing its growth, although Dachis
left the company in 2001, Avenue A / Razorfish now part of aQuantive,
was recently sold to Microsoft for $6 Billion in May 2007.

Dachis is also a Senior Partner at Manhattan based Bond Art +
Science, an Experience Architecture firm specializing in information
architecture and user experience design for digital media and
information services. He serves as an advisor to companies including:
Bazaarvoice, Waterfall Mobile, and Swapagift.com. Dachis also serves
as the Co-Chairman and national board delegate of the Producer's Guild
of America New Media Council East, and on the Board of Directors of
Austin's ArtHouse.

Recognized as a leading expert in digital technology, media, and
business, Dachis was awarded Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the
Year award in 2000, and has frequently appeared as a speaker at
industry conferences and in publications such as the New York Times,
the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Wired Magazine, and on
television shows such as CNBC, CNN, CNNFN, MSNBC, 20/20, and CBS 60
Minutes.

"I believe there is enormous opportunity in helping companies
devise and implement a strategy to engage their constituents in a
meaningful dialog throughout the enterprise. As companies begin to see
the benefits of utilizing "social" technology to engage their
customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, and communities in an
active and transparent dialog, they will need a trusted partner to
help them navigate the opportunities, and an integrated set of
scalable, robust, and secure enterprise class tools to implement them.
We are here to provide both expertise and implementation," said
Jeffrey Dachis.

Dachis added, "Austin Ventures' considerable resources,
experience, commitment, as well as their quality relationships with
entrepreneurs, in addition to an unparalleled track record, gave me a
high degree of confidence that this was the firm to work with."

"Through his leadership at Razorfish, Mr. Dachis was instrumental
in helping enterprises leverage the web during the early phase of the
Internet. The proliferation of social networks has created another
paradigm shift wherein enterprises need to drive commercial benefit
from the evolving social fabric of the Internet. We believe Mr.
Dachis' experience and vision are ideal to take advantage of this most
recent shift. The relationship with Mr. Dachis is part of AV's ongoing
strategy of partnering with talented, proven executives to pursue
investment opportunities. We continue to build relationships with
executives who share our passion for growth businesses and are
energized by the partnership we build with them," said Chris Pacitti,
General Partner, Austin Ventures.

The new company will be headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About Austin Ventures

Austin Ventures, with $3 billion dollars under management across
nine funds, has provided startup and growth capital to emerging
companies for over twenty years. We partner with exceptionally
talented entrepreneurs and operating executives to build valuable
businesses in a variety of technology and service industries. We
invest nationally but maintain a particular focus on Texas, where we
are the region's most active investor. Our team of investment
professionals works with companies at every stage of the funding
lifecycle, from initial seed investments, through startup and growth
capital, to management-led buyouts and recapitalizations. Austin
Ventures brings a long-term investment perspective, broad experience
in building high-growth companies, and access to an unparalleled
network of entrepreneurs and executives. Visit austinventures.com for
more information.

Austin Ventures
Jeffrey Dachis, 512-485-1977
jdachis@austinventures.com
or
Kim Hughes, 512-485-1955
Mobile: 512-657-7222
khughes@austinventures.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008