PALO ALTO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/23/13 -- Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a global multi-stage investment firm, today announced that Matthew Howard and Jeff Crowe have been promoted to Managing Partner, and Sonya Brown has been promoted to General Partner.

NVP strengthens its leadership team as the firm enters 2013 with significant growth and investment momentum across multiple stages, regions and sectors. During the last 12 months, NVP made 30 new venture and growth equity investments globally, grew the firm to 80 employees worldwide, and brought its total number of active portfolio companies to more than 100.

Also announced today, Promod Haque has been named to Senior Managing Partner at NVP. Haque continues his leadership position at the firm, making and overseeing new investments and playing an active role on the boards of such NVP portfolio companies as Apigee, CareCloud, Cyan, FireEye, Health Catalyst, PCH International, Virtela and Yatra. After nearly 25 years with NVP, Managing Partner George Still is transitioning to Partner Emeritus.

"Today's promotions recognize the deep talent and strong contributions our partners have made to our firm and our portfolio companies," said Haque. "Jeff and Matt have delivered outstanding results to NVP over the years and earned the respect of the entrepreneurs and investors with whom they've worked. They have both played an integral role in building NVP globally and adding significantly to our firm's culture and overall success. We look forward to their ongoing contributions and leadership as managing partners in the years ahead."

The NVP Growth Equity team has seen strong growth in the past year, expanding to 13 investment professionals in the U.S. and investing more than $250 million in seven new companies. "Sonya has been a tremendous asset to our growth equity team and a strong contributor to our firm," Haque added. "We're pleased to recognize Sonya and look forward to continued success in her general partner role at NVP."

Matthew Howard joined NVP in 2000 with 25 years of experience in marketing, product management, engineering, business development and sales in a wide range of technologies. Matt leads NVP's Enterprise & Infrastructure sector team that actively partners with entrepreneurs in the big data, cloud infrastructure, healthcare IT, enterprise systems, mobile, security and storage sectors. NVP has invested more than $80 million in new venture investments in these sectors during the last 12 months, including such companies as ClearDATA Networks, Health Catalyst, Pertino, Elemental Technologies, Skybox Imaging, Seculert, ScaleIO and Act-On Software.

Matt has appeared on the Forbes Midas List as a top 100 investor for three years. He focuses on mobile, security, rich media, cloud based services/applications, networking and storage investments at NVP and currently serves on the boards of Avere Systems, Blue Jeans Network, ConteXtream, Exablox, Hadapt, MobileIron and Pertino Networks. He is a board observer at FireEye. Previously, Matt was on the board of Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), Omneon (acquired by Harmonic), Reconnex (acquired by McAfee), Retrevo (acquired by Shopzilla), Skystream Networks (acquired by Tandberg Television), SpectraLinear (acquired by Silicon Laboratories), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance), Summit Microelectronics (acquired by Qualcomm), Swan Labs (acquired by F5 Networks) and Webstacks (acquired by Extreme Networks). He was a board observer with Veraz Networks (NASDAQ: VRAZ), Yipes (acquired by Reliance/Flag Telecom) and ZettaCom (acquired by IDT).

Before joining NVP, Matt was an early employee of Cisco. After joining the company in 1992, Matt held a number of senior positions with Cisco's IOS organization and the Internet Business Unit. Previously, Matt was vice president of marketing at Vertical Communications and held various positions at Digital Equipment Corporation, BDM International, and Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) Communications Corporation. He began his career as a cryptological analyst with the U.S. Naval Security Group. Matt served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense (DeVenCI) Program. He also holds one patent in mobility and two in cyber security. Matt holds a bachelor of business administration, with an emphasis in information systems, and a master of science degree in telecommunications management. View Matt Howard's complete biography here.

Jeff Crowe joined NVP in 2004 and focuses on Internet, consumer and software investments at NVP. Jeff leads NVP's Internet & Consumer sector team that actively partners with entrepreneurs in the ad tech, consumer services, digital media, e-commerce, enabling Internet technologies, mobile, retail and social sectors. The team has invested in such market leaders as Adaptive Planning, Badgeville, The Echo Nest, Gemvara, Gilt Groupe, Lending Club, Lumosity, ModCloth, Motif Investing, Quirky, Rafter, Turn and WhaleShark Media (RetailMeNot.com). NVP has invested more than $80 million in new venture investments in the enabling Internet technologies and e-commerce sectors during the last 12 months.

Jeff currently serves on the boards of AdChina, All Reach Media, Badgeville, deCarta, Extole, InfoArmy, Lending Club, Nano-Tex, SocialVibe, The Echo Nest, Turn and WhaleShark Media. He is also involved with Lashou. Jeff's previous investments include Admeld (acquired by Google), Jigsaw (acquired by Salesforce.com), Tuvox (acquired by West Interactive), and he was a board observer at Cast Iron Systems (acquired by IBM).

Prior to NVP, Jeff served as President, COO and board member of DoveBid, Inc., a privately held business auction firm, which expanded during his tenure via internal growth and acquisition from a $10 million revenue run rate to a $120 million revenue run rate with 400 employees. From 1990 to 1999, Jeff was co-founder, President, CEO and Board member of Edify Corporation, a venture backed company focused on voice and internet e-commerce platforms and applications. Edify held its IPO in 1996 and was sold to S1 Corporation in 1999. Previously, Jeff worked at ROLM Corporation, IBM and Siemens in marketing and general management. Jeff led the marketing for the voice messaging division within ROLM, which grew from startup to $50 million in revenue. Jeff holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and a BA in History, summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College. View Jeff Crowe's complete biography here.

Sonya Brown joined NVP in 2011. She has more than a decade of growth equity experience and is focused on investing across a wide range of sectors including consumer, information services, software, business services and financial services. Sonya is a part of the NVP Growth Equity team which has grown to 13 investment professionals in the U.S. and 19 growth equity investment professionals globally. The U.S. Growth Equity team invested more than $250 million in seven new companies over the last 12 months, including such companies as Alarm Capital Alliance (ACA), Manta Media, PICS, Rainmaker Group and other transactions that have not yet been announced. The team continues to expand to pursue the many prospects it is seeing -- particularly fast growing companies with strong market positions, significant revenue and net income traction.

Sonya currently sits on the board of directors of Alarm Capital Alliance (ACA), as well as two other undisclosed NVP growth equity companies. Previously, Sonya was at Summit Partners, a private equity firm with more than $11 billion under management, where she worked for nine years in the Boston office and was responsible for leading the firm's Consumer and Internet Industry Group in North America. Her most recent and past board directorships and investments include Aramsco, Airborne Health, Central Security Group, Physicians Formula Holdings (NASDAQ: FACE), Snap Fitness and Sparta Systems.

Prior to Summit, Sonya was a founder and General Partner of iXL Ventures in 1999, where she oversaw the funding and growth of numerous technology and Internet companies. In addition, she was Vice President of Corporate Development for the parent company iXL Enterprises, Inc., one of the largest global web development companies at that time. Sonya began her career in the investment banking division of Bear Stearns where she worked on numerous consumer and media transactions. Sonya holds a bachelor of science degree from Northwestern University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In addition, she is a Chartered Financial Analyst. View Sonya Brown's complete biography here.

About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a multi-stage investment firm that has partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 50 years. The firm manages over $3.7 billion in capital and has funded more than 500 companies since inception. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., NVP has subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel. NVP makes early to late-stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors including: technology, information services, business services, financial services, consumer products/services and healthcare. For more information visit: www.nvp.com. Follow NVP on Twitter @NorwestVP.

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