SAN MATEO, CA, Xignite, Inc., the leading financial market data cloud provider, today announced that it has secured $10 million in Series B funding from StarVest Partners, L.P. and John L. "Launny" Steffens of Spring Mountain Capital and former vice chairman of Merrill Lynch.

The equity financing, which also included participation from previous investors Altos Ventures, Startup Ventures and Peter Caswell, will be used to support the company's rapid growth through expansion of sales and marketing operations and extension of the Xignite market data cloud platform.

Financial markets are generating exponentially increasing amounts of market data due to high-frequency trading, venue fragmentation, and an ever expanding pool of financial instruments. In turn, financial services IT departments are being crushed between these record-level volumes of market data and the need to deliver it to a rapidly growing and increasingly mobile set of applications. The Xignite market data cloud platform allows firms to push this big data to the cloud where it is available globally, on-demand to any application with an Internet connection, allowing IT departments to focus on building the next generation of apps, instead of managing mountains of data.

"Every day financial markets generate one-hundred times more data than they did just five years ago," said Stephane Dubois, CEO and founder of Xignite. "At the same time, the one-size-fits-all terminal model is breaking down as businesses drive productivity through simpler, nimbler fit-for-purpose apps. Cloud-based market data is the only solution that can bridge this gap."

Transforming the Way Firms Buy, Sell and Consume Financial Market Data

"The Xignite cloud platform has the potential to create a seismic shift in the way financial services firms buy, sell and consume the core market data required to run their businesses," said Deborah Farrington, co-founder and general partner, StarVest Partners, L.P. who led the investment round for StarVest and has joined Xignite's board of directors. "Xignite aligns perfectly with StarVest's investment strategy: to seek out companies with innovative business models and experienced management teams that create disruptive technologies to solve real business problems."

The Xignite market data cloud platform transforms market data infrastructure into a utility just like electricity. Businesses can buy online and plug applications into the Xignite market data cloud in minutes. Exchanges and trading venues that put their market data onto the XigniteOnDemand private-label platform, such as NASDAQ OMX and CME Group, achieve immediate, global distribution through new online channels and superior market transparency as demanded by many of the new regulations resulting from the recent financial crisis.

"Xignite puts professional-grade, big market data in everyone's hands, leveling the playing field and bringing stronger transparency to the financial services industry," said Launny Steffens. "The cloud democratizes access to financial information for the little guys, while dramatically lowering the data management and delivery infrastructure costs for large banks, hedge funds and money managers."

About Xignite

Xignite is the leading financial market data cloud provider, offering more than 50 financial cloud APIs and fulfilling more than five billion service requests per month for real-time, historical and reference data covering global equities, commodities, currencies, options, fixed income, mutual funds, derivatives and OTC instruments. The Xignite market data cloud powers mission-critical applications for financial services front, middle and back office, financial websites, investor relations, corporate ERP and BI, e-commerce, and mobile for more than 900 clients in 47 countries, including Citi, GE, Wells Fargo, ING, BNY Mellon, Natixis, Forbes.com, SeekingAlpha, ExxonMobil, Starbucks, Netsuite, and Barrick Gold. The award-winning XigniteOnDemand cloud platform also provides new online channels for stock exchanges, trading venues, OTC brokers and market data originators including CME Group, NASDAQ OMX, BGCantor and Pearson. For more information, please visit www.xignite.com or call 1-866-XML-SOAP.

About StarVest

StarVest Partners is a New York-based venture capital firm founded in 1999 that invests in technology-enabled business services companies throughout the U.S. The firm`s value-added partnership focuses on four key emerging technology and services sectors: Software as a Service (SaaS), Internet Marketing Services, eCommerce Services and Data Aggregation Services. StarVest combines a sophisticated investment background with the experience to foresee opportunities for both its portfolio companies and funding partners. The firm`s general partners are Larry A. Bettino, Deborah A. Farrington, Laura B. Sachar and Jeanne M. Sullivan. StarVest was an early investor in the software-as-a-service trend: in 2000, it invested as the only venture firm in NetSuite (NYSE: N) where Deborah Farrington currently serves as lead director. Other noteworthy investments include MessageOne, acquired by Dell Computer; Connected, acquired by Iron Mountain; iCrossing acquired by Hearst; Insurance.com acquired by QuinStreet; and Fieldglass acquired by Madison Dearborn; Host Analytics, Accept Software and ideeli, among others. More information about StarVest is available at the company`s Web site: www.starvestpartners.com

About John L. "Launny" Steffens

Mr. John L. Steffens is the founder of Spring Mountain Capital and a co-managing member of its general partner. Prior to this, Mr. Steffens spent 38 years at Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., where he held numerous senior management positions, including president of Merrill Lynch Consumer Markets (which was later named the Private Client Group) from July 1985 until April 1997, and both vice chairman of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (the parent company) and chairman of its U.S. Private Client Group from April 1997 until July 2001. Mr. Steffens served on the board of directors of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. from April 1986 until July 2001. He also served as a member of the board of directors of Merrill Lynch Ventures, LLC (a U.S. $1.8 billion private equity fund for key employees.) Mr. Steffens has served as chairman of the Securities Industry Association, as a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development and is currently National Chairman Emeritus of the Alliance for Aging Research. Mr. Steffens currently serves on the advisory board of StarVest Partners, the advisory board of Wicks Communication & Media Partners, L.P., the board of directors of HealthPoint Capital, and as Chairman of the board of directors of Cicero, Inc. He also serves on the Boards of Colony Financial, Inc. and Perquest, Inc.