CAMBRIDGE, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/13/09 -- WebLayers, Inc. today announced the company has secured $3 million in a new equity round of funding from Ascent Venture Partners, Cedar Fund and Veritas Venture Partners with a contingency for additional funds if required. Additionally, the WebLayers Board of Directors has appointed industry veteran Jeff Papows as president and CEO. Further, to accommodate the company's continued growth, WebLayers has relocated its headquarters.

WebLayers develops software and provides related services to help businesses of all sizes realize greater efficiencies, reduce costs and improve productivity through automated governance of service-oriented architectures (SOA). Founded in 2002, WebLayers has realized continuous, double-digit revenue increases and is poised to reach the next level in its growth as evidenced by the additional funding and appointment of Jeff Papows as president and CEO.

"The WebLayers board and investors are thrilled to have recruited Jeff Papows as chief executive officer," said Geoff Oblak, general partner at Ascent Venture Partners. "Jeff has a phenomenal track record of success in building emerging technology companies into established market leaders. He has the ideal experience and skill set to accelerate WebLayers' success."

With more than 25 years of industry experience, Papows has a proven history of success in both emerging companies and global organizations. Most notably, Jeff was president and CEO of Lotus Development Corporation where he is widely credited for taking Lotus Notes from its initial release to sales of more than 70 million copies worldwide, making it the leading collaboration platform. Upon the acquisition of Lotus, Jeff helped steer the company's successful integration into IBM. Jeff was also president of Cognos Corporation, taking the business intelligence software provider from its early stages to sustained profitability, a successful public offering and years of continued growth that met or exceeded market expectations. Most recently, Jeff was the president and CEO of Maptuit, a provider of real-time commercial navigation software. Having led Maptuit to profitability and a market leadership position, Papows will continue to play an active role in the company as Chairman of the Board.

Papows has been a frequent guest of CNN and Fox News and as a successful author, Jeff's book, "Enteprise.com: Information Leadership in the Digital Age" has sold more than 80,000 copies and has been reprinted multiple times in several languages. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration as well as having earned a Master of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Science degree.

"I'm much like any tech industry veteran today where after a quarter of a century I've heard thousands of interesting ideas, saw the birth of hundreds of new companies and yet can recount only tens of sure-fire winners like WebLayers," said Jeffrey Papows, president and chief executive officer, WebLayers. "The appeal of WebLayers goes beyond its ability to proactively identify and address potential business issues before they become liabilities. Underscoring WebLayers' proven technology is a growing customer base consisting of scores of Fortune 500 companies and expanding partner network. These aspects, combined with the increasing industry demand for SOA governance, presented an opportunity to help lead the company into its next phase -- an opportunity that I couldn't resist."

About WebLayers

WebLayers provides the industry's most comprehensive design-time governance platform available today. By centralizing policy management across multiple IT domains from SOA through mainframe, WebLayers substantially reduces the costs associated with governance. WebLayers also offers the largest collection of industry-proven policies, including extensions for industry standards including insurance, manufacturing, and finance, which speeds governance implementation and enforcement from design-time through deployment.

WebLayers and WebLayers Center are trademarks of WebLayers, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

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