AppSecInc Secures $10M

NEW YORK -- Application Security, Inc. (AppSecInc) (www.appsecinc.com) today announced a strategic funding round led by Paladin Capital Group, and including previous investors Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, Kodiak Venture Partners and Early Stage Enterprises, LP. A multistage private equity firm widely respected for its extensive expertise in national security, Paladin will extend AppSecInc's sales and marketing efforts in both the government and private sectors.

According to Lt. General (Ret) USAF Kenneth A. Minihan, managing director of Paladin Capital and former director of the National Security Agency (NSA), "Data has never been more valuable to public and private sector organizations -- no more the target of theft, misuse or abuse. AppSecInc defined the database security market and continues to set the bar for what constitutes a complete approach to protecting digital assets. We're thrilled to become a part of this team, because it underscores our commitment to funding only best-in-class companies, management teams and products."

Headquartered in Washington D.C., with offices in New York City, N.Y. and Atlanta, Ga., Paladin has approximately $500,000,000 under management. In addition to Lt. General (Ret) Minihan, Paladin's leadership boasts professionals with proven track records of financial expertise, national security experience and specialized technical competence -- including Ambassador Jim Woolsey (former Director of Central Intelligence) and Dr. Alf Andreassen (Bell Labs, AT&T, National Security Agency Advisory Board). Paladin's Homeland Security Fund was launched in 2004 and focuses on infrastructure assurance and business continuity in a variety of verticals. The fund invests in small to mid-sized companies having dual-use potential for both private enterprise and government customers.

The total investment in this round is $10 million. The New York State Common Retirement Fund participated in AppSecInc's latest financing through its investment in Paladin Capital's Homeland Security Fund.

As with prior strategic funding from Visa, AppSecInc surrounds itself with investors who understand the cornerstone role database security plays relative to comprehensive data security and compliance initiatives. The worldwide market share leader in database-specific security solutions, proof points of AppSecInc's momentum include:

Jack Hembrough, president and CEO of AppSecInc, said, "Organizations of all stripes -- from government branches, to retailers, to multinational corporations -- understand they need to protect and secure data at its source. Doing so requires solutions which help them establish controls on their critical database applications and monitor those controls for violations so that they can ground their security and compliance mandates where data lives."

"This demand is driving a market for database security which is simply massive," Hembrough added. "If over the next four years, organizations buy products to defend just five percent of the databases they already have, the market will exceed a billion dollars."

Application Security Inc.