Start-Up Atrato Receives a $18 Million Investment

Atrato, Inc. announced the official launch of
the company and initial details of their breakthrough technology, a
high-performance storage platform that is designed to eliminate the
barriers to high-speed / high-volume data access, unlocking revenue and
opportunities for a range of applications and industries.

Atrato also announced its $18 million in initial funding and strong
lineup of backers, including influential industry leaders who serve as
investors and advisors:
Jesse Aweida, Aweida Venture Partners, founder and former president / CEO of StorageTek
Tom Porter, formerly CTO, Seagate and IBM storage executive
Gary Gentry, SVP Maxtor, Seagate
Dick Blaschke, an IBM and EMC veteran

"While the storage industry has spent billions on R&D, creating
highly dense and scalable systems, there has been little progress in
the development of high-performance storage platforms to keep up with
the increasing demands of digital content and data on-demand," said
Jesse Aweida, general partner of Aweida Venture Partners and founder of
StorageTek. "The I/O bottleneck between storage and servers is the
final remaining obstacle to unlocking a world of revenue, applications,
and end user fulfillment. Atrato’s distinctive ability and technology
know-how will change the traditional mindset of storage by providing
the highest performance storage platform in a secure environment."

Atrato assembled an impressive management team led by president and CEO
Dan McCormick, formerly an executive with Xiotech and Seagate; and
joined by Jonathan Hall, founder, and also formerly an executive with
Xiotech and Seagate; executive vice president Steve Visconti, formerly
with Cisco Systems, Airespace and Ascend; and COO Perry Nelson,
formerly with New Global Telecom, Avolent/Solant and American
Management Systems.

"Atrato has the right team and technology to provide new opportunities
for companies by eliminating barriers to content and data access," said
Tom Porter, former Seagate CTO and IBM storage executive. "While
scalable storage needs have, for the most part, been addressed, the
ability to access that content and data on-demand has remained
difficult and expensive until now."

"Instant access to infinite data is the new mantra of storage," said
Dan McCormick, president / CEO, Atrato. "It might sound like a cute tag
line, but we really are trying to get people to think beyond the
limitations they have become accustomed to. Our platform will help
users in a range of industries to go beyond these limitations and
achieve new, previously impractical or impossible capabilities."

The company is fully operational, with beta product and initial
customers in place. Atrato will share additional details about
customers and product in the coming months.

Atrato Inc.