Baird Venture Partners: Coalfire Systems secures $5M investment from Baird Venture Partners

LOUISVILLE, Colo., February 9, 2011– Louisville, Colo.-based Coalfire Systems (Coalfire) today announced it has secured a $5 million Series A investment from Baird Venture Partners (BVP), the U.S.-based venture capital fund of Baird Private Equity. Coalfire, a leading provider of IT audit and compliance management services to more than 1,000 small and mid-sized businesses, will use the proceeds to support its growth initiatives and continue to enhance its compliance management platform, Navis.

A key driver of Coalfire’s growth over the past decade has been the rapid growth of electronic transaction processing and information exchange and the resulting challenges associated with managing and securing sensitive enterprise data. The mounting risk from data breaches and cyber-security attacks has led to increasingly robust federal, state and industry requirements that organizations provide independent validation and reporting of information controls to regulators and internal compliance officials. New challenges posed by mobile devices and cloud computing are expected to continue to raise the demand for Coalfire’s IT audit services.

“We are excited about the investment in Coalfire and the ability to partner with management in supporting the company’s next stage of growth,” said Jim Pavlik, Partner of BVP. “We believe that Coalfire is well positioned to take advantage of increasing IT regulatory compliance requirements and the growth in demand for third party audit services.”

“We’ve had a chance to build a strong relationship with the BVP team over the past several years and are very pleased to formalize our partnership through BVP’s investment,” said Rick Dakin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Coalfire. “The BVP team’s broad network of resources and deep knowledge of our industry make them an excellent partner for taking our business to the next level.”

As part of the transaction, Pavlik and BVP Partner Benedict Rocchio will join the Coalfire board of directors.

About Coalfire

Coalfire is a leading, independent IT Audit and Compliance firm that provides information technology (IT) audit, security assessment and IT compliance management solutions. The company has grown rapidly since being founded in 2001 and now completes more than 1,000 projects annually in retail, financial services, healthcare, government and utilities. Coalfire has developed a new generation of technology-enabled IT Compliance Management Tools under the Navis brand. These tools enable Coalfire to efficiently deliver governance, risk and compliance (GRC) services and keep pace with rapidly-changing regulations and best practices. Coalfire’s solutions are adapted to requirements under emerging data privacy legislation, including the PCI Data Security Standard, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, HIPAA/HITECH, NERC CIP, Sarbanes-Oxley and FISMA. For more information, please visit http://www.coalfiresystems.com.

About Baird Venture Partners

Baird Venture Partners, the U.S.-based venture capital fund of Baird Private Equity, makes venture capital investments in early and expansion stage business services and life sciences companies. Baird Venture Partners leverages its in-depth sector knowledge, experienced investment team and network of relationships to serve as a value-added partner for its portfolio companies. For more information, please visit http://www.bairdventurepartners.com.

Baird Private Equity, the global private equity group of Robert W. Baird & Co. (Baird), makes venture capital, growth equity and buyout investments in smaller, high potential companies in the United States through Baird Venture Partners and Baird Capital Partners, in China through Baird Capital Partners Asia, and in Europe through Baird Capital Partners Europe. Baird Private Equity has a global team of investment and operations professionals across the United States, Europe and Asia, including a team of operating professionals in Asia. Baird Private Equity and its affiliates have raised and managed over $2.7 billion in capital and invested in more than 240 companies since the 1980s. For more information, please visit http://www.bairdprivateequity.com.

For additional information, contact:

Angela Pittman Taylor

Baird Public Relations

414-298-1902

apittmantaylor@rwbaird.com