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Lightship Telecom, Kozmo.com, DoDots, iPrint.com, Cooking.com, Rare Ventures, Response Networks, KnowledgeNet, Genedax, HotDispatch, NetBase Computing, PrintNation.com, SurfMonkey.com, X.com, Chromazone, WorldStreet
J.P. Morgan Capital Backs Lightship Telecom
NASHUA, N.H.–Lightship Telecom, an Integrated Communications Provider serving business customers in the Northeastern United States, announced that J.P. Morgan Capital Corporation, the private equity subsidiary of J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated has made a substantial investment in the firm. Through J.P. Morgan’s participation, Lightship will accelerate its entry into under- served markets throughout the Northeast.
www.lightshiptel.com
NEW YORK–Kozmo.com, the first company to seamlessly integrate online shopping with direct consumer delivery in under an hour, announced that it is receiving $28 million in its first official round of venture capital funding.
The list of firms who recognize Kozmo.com’s unique approach to e-commerce is led by the Silicon Alley’s own Flatiron Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Chase Capital Partners. In addition, J.W. Seligman & Co, Inc., Hambrecht & Quest Group, Thomas Weisel Partners, LLC., Triad Media Ventures LLC and New York City Investment Fund have backed Kozmo’s ever-expanding one-hour delivery service.
The New York City Investment Fund, which represents more then 70 prominent business leaders, was invited by Flatiron Partners to invest in Kozmo.com’s one-of-a kind online business model.
www.kozmo.com
SOFTBANK Venture Capital’s Technology Fund Invests In DoDots Inc.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–SOFTBANK Venture Capital, which manages venture capital funds focused primarily on early-stage Internet companies, announced it has made a first-round investment in DoDots, Inc.
Heidi Roizen, managing director for the fund, will join the company’s board of directors.
DoDots(TM) technology enables users to access and manage live Internet content from multiple online companies at the same time by organizing a collection of Dots(TM) — free-floating mini-sites — on the desktop. These “Dots” are a fraction the size of full-screen Web pages, allowing users to “Do” multiple things on the Internet, such as trade stocks, bid on auctions, monitor breaking news, and check online orders, while working in other desktop applications.
Palo Alto-based DoDots, Inc., was founded in early 1999 by twin brothers George and John Kembel, and Tony Medrano.
www.dodots.com
www.softbank.com
SOFTBANK Venture Capital’s Technology Fund Leads iPrint.com Series C Funding
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–iPrint.com, an online print shop, announced that SOFTBANK Venture Capital, which manages venture capital funds focused primarily on early-stage Internet companies, is the lead financier for its $20 million dollar Series C funding. iPrint.com has raised $31 milliondollars since launching in 1997.
AT&T Ventures also participated in the Series C round, as well as existing shareholders, including Intel Corporation, Canaan Partners, ITV (Information Technology Ventures), the Robertson Stephens partner fund, and DawnTreader LP, the venture fund founded by Robert Lessin, CEO of Wit Capital and former vice chairman of Salomon Smith Barney.
www.iPrint.com
Cooking.com Secures $30 Million Round Of Funding From Private Investors
SANTA MONICA, Calif.– Cooking.com, an online retailer of cookware and specialty foods, announced completion of a $30 million round of funding from its existing investors and the Internet-focused venture capital firm netWorth Partners, advised by Mellon Ventures.
netWorth Partners is a national venture capital fund that invests along with Mellon Ventures in companies across the Internet value chain, including content, infrastructure and service companies. Existing investors Vanguard Venture Partners, Tredegar Investments, Forrest, Binkley and Brown, Times Mirror Co., the Phillips Smith Specialty Group, idealab Capital Partners, Dynafund Ventures and Moore Capital also participated in this round.
www.cooking.com
NEW YORK–Rare Ventures, the investment arm of Rare Medium Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:RRRR), announced it has made venture investments in three additional next-generation Internet companies. These investments, for which Rare will receive web development contracts as well as invest capital, include Edmund’s, an independent provider of original editorial content and complete pricing and specification information for the automotive market; GoShip, a firm offering enhanced, cost effective shipping and fulfillment solutions for e-commerce sites; and MoneyHunt.com, an online companion to the TV program “Money Hunt,” which is designed to entertain, educate and empower entrepreneurs as they seek capital for their start-up ideas.
After securing $87 million in capital from the Apollo investment group, Rare now has the award-winning talent and the resources to enable, build and invest in the companies that will comprise the next generation of online businesses.
Response Networks Works With Cisco Systems To Improve End-To-End Response Time Management
ALEXANDRIA, Va.– Response Networks Inc., a provider of e-transaction performance analysis and problem diagnosis solutions, announced that it will work with Cisco Systems to integrate Response products with the CiscoWorks2000 Service Level Management Suite. The combination of these two product sets will provide a comprehensive approach to managing the end-to-end performance of networked e-business applications and IP services.
Venture capital funding has been provided by investment firms, including Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds (Reston, VA), Hickory Venture Capital Corporation (Huntsville, AL), and Blue Rock Capital (Wilmington, DE).
www.responsenetworks.com
KnowledgeNet Receives $16.5 Million In Funding
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.– Computer-based training is on the verge of an e-volution with the product release of KnowledgeNet, an innovator in e-Learning solutions for Information Technology (IT) professionals.
The company announced that three Silicon Valley venture capitalist firms — Morgenthaler Partners, Sierra Ventures, and Trinity Ventures — have invested $16.5 million to help KnowledgeNet introduce new solutions that dramatically redefine learning.
KnowledgeNet will offer both live, Internet delivered instructor-led training (eILT) and interactive Web-based training (iWBT) courseware.
www.knowledgenet.com
Genedax Raises $4 Million In Second-Round Venture Funding
PORTLAND, Ore.– Genedax, the first of a new generation of software companies founded to extend Microsoft Windows technology into the electronic design automation (EDA) realm, announced that it has secured $4 million in its second round of venture funding. Participants in this round of financing include Sevin Rosen Funds and Microsoft Corporation, bringing the company’s total funding to more than $7 million. Proceeds from this offering will be used to commercialize Genedax’s EDA software technology, which is based on the rich environment enabled by the Microsoft Windows platform.
Genedax received initial first-round funding from Sevin Rosen Funds in March 1998.
HotDispatch Secures $6 Million In First Round Funding
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-HotDispatch Inc., announced the closing of a $6-million first round of venture capital financing. The group of investors is lead by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Accel Partners. As part of this financing, HotDispatch has added Mitchell Kapor, partner at Accel and founder of Lotus Development Corporation, and Arthur Marks, general partner at NEA, to its Board of Directors.
The additional funding will be used to expand HotDispatch’s marketplace for web-deliverable technical services.
www.hotdispatch.com
www.nea.com
www.accel.com
LOS ANGELES– NetBase Computing Inc. an eBusiness services firm that develops and implements comprehensive, integrated web-based solutions for middle-market organizations, announced a first round equity financing of $35 million from ABS Capital Partners and Chase Capital Partners.
www.netbasecomputing.com
www.abscapital.com
www.chasecapital.com
PrintNation.com Receives $5.75 Million In First-Round Funding
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — PrintNation.com – an e-commerce supersite for commercial printers — announced it has received $5.75 million in first-round venture capital funding from U.S. Venture Partners and Venrock Associates.
Scheduled to be introduced this fall, the one-stop supersite will offer a broad array of printing supplies, equipment, professional resources and services to meet printers’ every need.
www.PrintNation.com
Internet Fact of
the Day
The business-to-business e-commerce market will reach $1.5 trillion by 2004, according to Goldman Sachs. Commercial printing is the 4th largest U.S. industry. More than ninety percent of the 70,000 commercial printing establishments in the U.S. are already regularly online, making online supply ordering and use of site resources a natural move.
SurfMonkey.com Completes Its Latest Round Of Financing
CAMPBELL, Calif.– SurfMonkey.com Inc., a kid-safe Internet portal, announced that it has completed its third round of financing. Investors such as Bandai, Chinavest, Dominion Income, John Glynn of Glynn Capital, Naveen Jain, CEO of InfoSpace.com, Sanford Robertson, founder of Robertson Stevens, and others, have invested a total of $5.5 million in SurfMonkey.com for this latest round of equity funding.
www.SurfMonkey.com
X.com Secures Investment Funding From Sequoia Capital
PALO ALTO, Calif. — X.com Corporation announced that the company has secured venture funding from Sequoia Capital, and that Sequoia General Partner Michael Moritz has joined the board of directors.
www.x.com
www.sequoiacap.com
TVN Forms New ‘Chromazone’ Entity As Platform For E-Commerce Business And Applications
BURBANK, Calif. — TVN Entertainment Corporation has formed Chromazone LLC, a Delaware limited liability corporation, jointly with Digital Evolution, L.P., as an applications development and investment vehicle for e-commerce and Internet businesses, announced Stuart Z. Levin, TVN Chairman and CEO. Chromazone will serve as an “incubator” for the creation and implementation of multi-platform e-commerce business applications to be deployed via the Internet, broadband cable and satellite and accessible by PCs, TVs, PDAs, other handheld devices.
Digital Evolution (DE) is an innovative technology venture group focused on network applications for the wired world. DE investments include internet infrastructure, e-commerce, streaming media and other vital technologies for the new economy.
www.tvn.com
Who’s Who & Where
WorldStreet Names Harold S. Bradley & Jeffrey P. Parker To Board
BOSTON–Bruce Fador, president and chief executive officer of WorldStreet Corporation, announced two appointments from the financial services industry to the board of directors for WorldStreet, an application service provider for the financial industry.
Taking seats on the WorldStreet board are Harold S. Bradley, senior vice president and portfolio manager for American Century Investments, and Jeffrey P. Parker, the founder of First Call Corporation, Technical Data Corporation, and CCBN.com of Boston, where he is now chairman and chief executive officer.
WorldStreet’s investors include J.P. Morgan, Hambrecht and Quist, Deutsche Bank Securities, American Century, Northbridge Venture Partners, Advanced Technology Ventures, Gilde Investment Management and Cambridge Technology Capital Fund.
www.worldstreet.com
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