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Cornice Secures $51 Million in Venture Funding; Storage Innovator's Steady Success Yields Increased Interest From Finance Sector

LONGMONT, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 2004--Cornice Inc., an innovator in compact, high-capacity storage, has secured $51 million in a second round of venture financing. The round includes the Company's previous investors -- CIBC Capital Partners, Nokia Venture Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners -- and brings on board new investors BA Venture Partners and GIC Special Investments Pte. Ltd. As a result of this second round of financing, Jim Jones, a director at BA Venture Partners, will join the Cornice Board of Directors.


This round of financing brings the total amount invested in the Company to $81 million. The new capital will be used to support sales, development, and manufacturing initiatives related to the Company's Storage Element technology. The Storage Element is an embedded storage device for "pocket-able" electronic products such as digital music players, digital video capture devices, and other products. Cornice's two-gigabyte Storage Element, introduced in January 2004, has already been designed into products that made their debut at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2004.

"The participation of our previous investors in this round is an enormous vote of confidence in Cornice's vision for compact, low-cost storage for electronic devices," said Kevin Magenis, president and CEO of Cornice. "With the additional financing and very high, sustained interest in the Cornice Storage Element from leading electronic device manufacturers, we are confident that the Company has tapped into a market need that has been unmet for some time."

"As active investors, we are proud to have been instrumental in the growth of a company with such innovative technology, solid management, and top-tier customers in the consumer electronics industry," said Melissa Crane-Guzy, managing director at VantagePoint Venture Partners. "Cornice's early successes in the MP3 player market have demonstrated that it is well ahead of the curve in terms of providing a storage solution that meets the cost, size, and capacity requirements of 'pocket-able' consumer electronics."

"The number of portable electronic consumer devices on the market continues to grow at a phenomenal rate which increases the demand for advanced storage solutions like Cornice's," said Jim Jones, director of BA Venture Partners. "I am excited to join the board of such an exciting company as they address the demands of the large and growing consumer electronics market."

About Cornice

Cornice Inc. is an innovator in small, compact, low-cost, high-capacity storage that enables a new generation of pocket-able consumer electronic devices for the world's leading brand-name manufacturers. The Cornice Storage Element (SE) is durable, integrated, personal storage that brings new levels of affordability and content capacity to these devices.

Early investors in Cornice include the company's founders, management team, and Texas Instruments. In August 2002, the Company received its first venture investment from, CIBC Capital Partners, Nokia Venture Partners, and VantagePoint Venture Partners. Privately held, Cornice maintains headquarters in Longmont, Colorado. Visit Cornice at http://www.corniceco.com/.

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