Venture Capital: From the shadows emerges Napera

The team that helped build WatchGuard Technologies into a leading provider of network security devices is working on a new security product that helps small businesses identify computer users and maintain the health of the network.

Operating in stealth mode for more than a year under the name Altus Networks, the 13-person company Friday is disclosing a new moniker, Napera Networks, and the rough outline of its product.

Napera's chairman is Chris Slatt and its chief executive is Todd Hooper, both of whom held executive positions at WatchGuard.

While WatchGuard continues to develop firewall products to protect the corporate network from outside attacks, Hooper said small and medium-size companies now have to think more broadly about security as people log on to networks remotely.

"You really have to understand who is on the network, what is the overall health of the network," he said. "It is not just a matter of locking the front door; you also have to ask people to wipe their feet and identify themselves before they come in the house, so to speak."

Napera is targeting businesses in the 50- to 1,000-employee range, with plans to charge under $10,000. That's the same market segment that WatchGuard targets, though Hooper does not see his former employer as competition.

"WatchGuard's products are all about sitting on the perimeter of the network, it is not about sitting inside the network, which is where our product sits," he said.

Napera is backed with a small investment from OVP Venture Partners, one of a few bets that the Kirkland venture firm has placed in the network security arena. (It also was an original investor in WatchGuard, with more recent investments including BioPassword and Vantos.)

The company plans to go out for another venture round this year.

More details about Napera will be unveiled as part of the launch of Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 product in Los Angeles next week. A full product rollout is slated for the RSA Conference in San Francisco in early April.

The company dropped the Altus name because Hooper liked Napera better, saying "Nap" fits in with Microsoft's focus on network access protection and "era" speaks to a new era in network security. Furthermore, Napera shows up better in search engine results, he said.

BLOG ROUNDUP: Here are a few of the items appearing on my blog this week: blog.seattlepi.com/venture:

Join a discussion about a secretive Seattle startup called Doyenz, created by the founders of business software company Performant.

Find out how the city of Seattle is using technology from V2Green to analyze the performance of 13 plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Learn about Avvo's plans for adding more attorney profiles to its lawyer-ranking service.

Discover how companies are using high-altitude balloons to provide wireless coverage in rural areas.