Garber Fund Grows Investment In DiamondBack Automotive Accessories

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (April 17, 2007) – The Garber Venture Capital Fund, a $5 million student-managed fund at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, recently invested $25,000 of its $200,000 second investment tranche in DiamondBack Automotive Accessories, Inc., one of the fastest-growing auto accessory companies in the world.

The capital, which is the second of two tranches in a Series B Preference Stock transaction, will be used to grow sales and expand the company’s marketing efforts nationwide.

Based in Philipsburg, Pa., DiamondBack makes pick-up bed covers from diamond plate aluminum, turning the entire bed into a secure vault, while allowing users to carry a payload on top of the cover. The bed covers have become very popular among building and construction workers, as well as outdoorsmen.

The company's first bed cover was designed by Matt Chverchko and Ethan Wendle in 2003 while they were still undergraduates at Penn State. They were both enrolled in an engineering entrepreneurship program that challenged them to come up with a new product idea.

As outdoor enthusiasts and avid hunters, Chverchko and Wendle wanted a better way to secure their gear in their pick-ups without sacrificing payload capacity. They priced out the market and found everything was either too expensive or impractical; so they created the first diamond plate aluminum bed cover. Their design has won multiple engineering and entrepreneurship awards.

About The Garber Fund
The Garber Fund was established in 1999 with a $5 million commitment from Penn State alumnus John Garber and his wife Bette to bring reality to the teaching of entrepreneurship and venture capital. The fund is part of the Nittany Lion Venture Capital Association (NLVC), an MBA student-run management group that works with small companies and other investment groups in early stage business planning, execution and due-diligence assignments. NLVC forms part of Smeal's highly acclaimed entrepreneurship program, in which students are immersed in real-life situations throughout their studies.

Smeal is also home to the Nittany Lion Fund LLC, a $4.6 million student-managed investment portfolio with more than 60 private investors, making the college one of only a handful of business schools that have large student-managed funds for investment in both private and public equities embedded in their academic programs.

For more information on Nittany Lion Venture Capital or Penn State Entrepreneurs Network, contact Steve Christensen at slc320@psu.edu or visit www.smeal.psu.edu/mba/studlife/studorgs/psen.html.