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Richard McCaskill
rcmccaskill@lumidigm.com
505-272-7326

Lumidigm completes first round of equity
funding from major investors

September 25, 2002, Albuquerque, New Mexico -- Lumidigm, Inc., an Albuquerque company that has developed a new method of automatic identification based on biometric technology, has announced the completion of thier first round of equity funding provided by venture capital firms.

The investors include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, New England;
Intel Capital, Santa Clara, Calif.; International Venture
Fund, Menlo Park, Calif., Solstice Capital, Boston, Mass.,
and Wasatch Venture Fund, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Lumidigm’s identification method uses its patented
LumiGuard™ biometric sensor, about the size of a penny,
which can be incorporated into virtually any product and
instantly verifies identity or ownership. In addition to
traditional biometrics applications, such as physical access
control, the company is targeting new markets where small, power-efficient and reliable biometric sensors are required
in hand-held products ranging from handguns to electronic
devices like cell phones, laptop computers and personal
digital assistants.

“The expanded use of mobile computing and wireless
connectivity creates opportunities for emerging biometrics
solutions,” said Abel Weinrib, director and general manager
of Intel’s Network Architecture Lab. “We seek to encourage
technology that supports an easy, reliable, and flexible user
authentication environment, helping enable Intel’s vision of
mobile PCs and handheld devices that provide a more trusted
platform in a connected world.”

Todd Stevens, managing general partner of Wasatch Venture
Fund, one of the investors, said “Wasatch is excited about
the potential of LumiGuard to meet the security needs of
large strategic markets in cell phones, PDAs and laptop
computing.”

Robert M. Harbour, Lumidigm’s chairman, president and chief
executive officer, said his company “is pleased to have
received funding from our investors and strong support from our corporate partners as we accelerate our efforts to take
LumiGuard from prototype to market.”

Prior to obtaining the current round of venture funding,
Lumidigm established corporate partnerships with several
industry leaders. Lumidigm is working with Smith & Wesson to
develop a biometrically enabled handgun under a grant from
the National Institute of Justice. Lumidigm is also working
with Visteon to develop the LumiGuard technology for a
variety of automotive applications. The company is working
with Ingersoll-Rand on next-generation biometric access
devices for airports and other commercial installations with
high security requirements.

According to a recent article published in U.S. News and
World Report magazine, “The biometric frontier, where
researchers are looking for new and better markers, is not
exactly the stuff of poetry. Except, perhaps, for a little
silver device called a LumiGuard sensor. Among the most
promising of new approaches, it works by measuring the play
of many-colored light through your skin. Skin layer
thicknesses, capillaries, and other structures all affect the
light, creating a distinctive pattern of changes.”

Sherman McCorkle, president of Technology Ventures Corp., the
Lockheed Martin-founded Albuquerque-based organization that
assisted in establishing the relationship between Lumidigm
and venture capital firms, called the announcement “important
for New Mexico. The national need for this kind of
breakthrough innovation is creating an opportunity for local
companies like Lumidigm to grow New Mexico’s lead as a center
of cutting-edge technologies critical to personal and
national security.”

Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M said: “Lumidigm’s promising
technology will support high-tech, high-paying jobs that
could help keep a police officer’s gun from being used
against him, or be a replacement for every key in your pocket
and password that you have memorized. Congratulations to
Lumidigm for reaching this important next step in bringing
this technology to the marketplace.”

“This is a technology with many applications, especially in
connection with our national security needs. This new
funding affirms the great promise of this technology, which
may prove to be one of the significant entries in the field
of biometric security,” said Senator Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M.

Congressman Richard E. Neal, D-Mass. said: “I have seen the
LumiGuard technology first-hand. Its extraordinary
properties make it a critical component of the Authorized-
User-Only handgun being developed in conjunction with Smith &
Wesson. And given the many needs for biometrics –
particularly in terms of security – I am convinced that we
will soon see LumiGuard in many different areas of the
federal government.”

McCorkle concluded by citing the National Venture Capital
Association study which shows that companies backed by
venture capital generate twice the sales, pay three times the
federal taxes and invest far more heavily in research and
development than their traditionally financed counterparts. “New Mexico is getting twice the benefit because Lumidigm is
backed by five great venture investors,” he said.

Lumidigm (pronounced LUMI-DIME, as in paradigm) was formed in 2001 as a privately held company.

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