SUNNYVALE, Calif. — (company press release) — MontaVista Software Inc., developer of the Hard Hat Linux operating system for embedded applications, today announces the completion of the company's first round of funding, securing $9 million from leading venture investment firms US Venture Partners (Menlo Park, Calif.) and Alloy Ventures (Palo Alto, Calif.). MontaVista, with its unique combination of embedded industry expertise and open source credentials, will use the substantial venture backing to continue the momentum begun with the company's inception one year ago by embedded industry pioneer Jim Ready.

The investment reflects the fact that the popular Linux operating system is fast becoming the platform of choice for developers of Internet appliances as well as data and telecommunications infrastructure. MontaVista's Hard Hat Linux, which focuses on these demanding embedded applications, is based entirely upon off-the-shelf Linux kernel and software components and is 100 percent open source and royalty free.

“Hard Hat Linux from MontaVista brings the flexibility and strengths of Linux to the world of embedded systems,” says Stuart Phillips, General Partner, US Venture Partners. “Hard Hat Linux is the way to decrease time to market for anyone building embedded systems — especially products aimed at the communications infrastructure.”

Rick Lehrbaum, embedded Linux industry analyst and founder of LinuxDevices.com, comments, “The embedded market represents an enormous opportunity for open source and Linux — less than 5 percent of the microprocessors minted each year go into PCs. The rest are tucked away inside a whole host of dedicated and appliance-like systems. MontaVista has put together the team, the strategies, the technologies, and is now putting in place the infrastructure to be a major player in the rapidly emerging embedded Linux market. MontaVista has the vision, the focus and the wherewithal to pull it off.”

MontaVista will use this first major round of funding to augment its engineering, support, marketing and sales capabilities. Specifically, it will enhance the Hard Hat Linux offering in terms of development tools, processor coverage and real-time performance.

“The Linux operating system and business model are truly revolutionary,” says MontaVista Software president and CEO James Ready, the originator of VRTX, the first off-the-shelf commercial embedded operating system. “The open-source movement brings the talents and oversight of tens of thousands of engineers to bear on the Linux code base, offering innovation and reliability previously unknown in either the desktop or the embedded systems spaces. MontaVista is both proud to be able to contribute to the open-source community and to provide a viable business path for designers to develop and deploy embedded Linux applications.”

About MontaVista Software Inc.

MontaVista Software Inc., founded in 1999 by real-time operating system pioneer James Ready, delivers open-source software solutions for the worldwide embedded software market. MontaVista's principal offering is the Linux operating system tailored for embedded software applications. MontaVista products include Hard Hat Linux, a standard off-the-shelf binary distribution of Linux for PowerPC and x86 architectures. Hard Hat Linux is supported by a comprehensive tool suite including optimizing compilers for C, C++ and other languages; high-level language debuggers; and performance monitoring tools. The company's Subscription Plans also provide Linux support, porting and customization services to customers worldwide. MontaVista headquarters are in Sunnyvale, Calif., in the heart of the Silicon Valley.

 
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