PETER FENTON JOINS BENCHMARK CAPITAL AS GENERAL PARTNER

EDITORIAL CONTACT:
Stephanie Gnibus
GMK Communications for Benchmark Capital
408.776.9727
stephanie@gmkcommunications.com

           
Menlo Park, California, April 20, 2006 – Benchmark Capital, a leading early-stage high-technology venture capital firm, today announced that Peter Fenton has joined the firm as a general partner.

Mr. Fenton is a seasoned entrepreneur, strategy consultant and venture investor.  He spent the last seven years at Accel Partners focusing on software and technology-enabled services investments, and led and managed Accel’s investments in more than ten companies, including the successful acquisitions of JBoss and Wily Technology.

“We are absolutely thrilled to have Peter join our team at Benchmark.  He is a superstar,” said Kevin Harvey, general partner at Benchmark Capital.  “Peter understands what it takes to build extraordinary companies.  His energy, judgment and investment experience, as well as his extensive personal network, will enhance the quality service and teamwork that we pride ourselves on as a firm.” 

“Peter is a terrific investor and company builder. His early recognition of the opportunity at JBoss and his support of the company have been significant,” said Marc Fleury, president and CEO of JBoss. “Benchmark is fortunate to have him, and I look forward to working with Peter in the future.”
 
Prior to joining the venture capital community, Mr. Fenton was an early employee at Virage, a multimedia information retrieval company that went public on the NASDAQ in 2000.  Mr. Fenton also worked as a management consultant at Bain & Company in San Francisco, where he advised high-technology businesses in Silicon Valley on their product and business strategies.

Mr. Fenton’s investments include Coremetrics, JBoss, Mendocino Software, Oak Pacific Interactive, Reactivity, Terracotta, Xensource, and Zimbra.  He earned his Bachelor of Arts and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

About Benchmark Capital

Benchmark Capital was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs build great technology companies. Benchmark’s partners take a team-oriented, labor-intensive approach to venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the firm’s portfolio companies. Benchmark’s portfolio includes franchise companies such as eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX), Handspring (Nasdaq: PALM), JAMDAT (Nasdaq: JMDT), Juniper Networks (Nasdaq: JNPR), Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT), and ZipRealty (Nasdaq: ZIPR). Managing more than $3 billion in committed venture capital, Benchmark focuses on investing in entrepreneurs with original ideas. For more information on Benchmark, visit its website at www.benchmark.com.