VC Buzz – $351.75+ Million in Today’s Deals

NEW YORK CITY and WALTHAM, Mass.– Eight investment firms have provided $40 million of financing for SupplierMarket.com, an Internet-based, business-to-business company. Taking the lead in the second round is Fenway Partners and the executives of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Completing the portfolio of investors is Battery Ventures, Sequoia Capital and the private equity firms of Fleet Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners, Inc., ONEX Corp. and Silicon Valley Bank. In June 1999, Battery Ventures and Sequoia Capital participated in SupplierMarket.com’s $8 million financing. In its first five weeks of operation, the SupplierMarket.com marketplace has grown to more than $100 million in RFQs and to more than 5,000 registered and verified manufacturing companies.

SAN FRANCISCO — FamilyWonder.com completed its second round of private financing, totaling $25 million, from MeriTech Capital Partners and RRE Ventures. Accel Partners and US Venture Partners, the company’s initial investors, also contributed to this second round of funding. FamilyWonder.com is an online family entertainment retailer that provides tools to help parents, friends, and relatives select and purchase the best products for kids.

NEW YORK– Eureka Broadband Corp., a building-centric Application Service Provider and premium high-speed Internet access company, received $22 million in a first round of venture capital funding. Spectrum Equity Investors and AT&T Ventures were the primary financiers behind the private equity deal. Eureka Broadband provides business customers with super-fast Internet access, a wide range of enhanced data services and next-generation applications. Commercial real estate owners form partnerships with Eureka to install a technologically advanced infrastructure in each building, providing tenants with a true broadband experience

CONCORD, Mass. — Giganet Inc. closed $19 million in new funding. The round, led by H&Q Venture Associates LLC, included new investments from W.R. Hambrecht, Merrill Lynch, NTT Leasing, and Telsoft, joining previous investors Innocal L.P. and Mariposa Investment Holding A.G. Giganet provides leading edge system cluster area network products that enable data centers to scale computing resources to meet the demands of the Internet.

SAN FRANCISCO– SECTORBASE.com Inc. secured more than $15 million in private equity financing from US Venture Partners as the lead investor, Harbourvest Partners, and Reuters Group PLC. The Reuters financing is part of its Greenhouse Program, which invests in new content and technology companies, and identifies new market opportunities for Reuters. SECTORBASE.com Inc. designs, develops and markets a powerful investment research platform to investment professionals and individual subscribers through its web site.

MT. VIEW, Calif. — PhotoPoint.com, a free photo Web site where members have shared more than 3.5 million photos online, secured $11 million in venture funding from US Venture Partners, SOFTBANK Venture Capital and Entertainment Media Ventures. Launched in 1998, PhotoPoint provides free membership, unlimited free storage, and a uniquely easy way for anyone to post photos, manage them online, and share them.

TORONTO– Wysdom Inc., a developer of wireless Internet applications, completed a US$7 million investment from The VenGrowth Investment Fund Inc. Wysdom develops and markets software application suites and turnkey solutions that allow e-businesses and other Internet information providers to offer their content and services over a variety of wireless devices. By deploying Wysdom’s enabling technology, Internet companies can utilize an entirely new medium to offer ubiquitous access to their services via millions of handheld Internet-ready devices.

sed to acquire an additional share of SUMmedia.com at a price of $4.50, for a period of 12 months from the issuance date. SUMmedia.com provides online coupons as eCommerce opportunities for small business through its eCoupon portal, SavingUmoney.com.

FORT DODGE, Iowa — Musichotbid.com, an e-commerce company that owns an Internet music equipment/memorabilia auction site, successfully completed a first round of financing through “angel” investors from Silicon Valley, Dallas and Boston, including executives from Lucent Technologies, Lycos and Phonefree.com. A total of $1.0 million was raised.

BOULDER, Colo. — Now & Zen, an American manufacturer of original New Age designs for the home and office, received $250,000 in venture capital from JSGL Investments LLC to develop a new product line that will be marketed exclusively on the Internet.

NEW YORK– inshop.com, an online source for shopping-related information announced the launch of its new Web site at www.inshop.com. The site provides users with indispensable shopping-related information including insider tips about sales, promotions and events happening in stores, on the Web and in catalogs. Along with the launch of the new site, inshop announced that America Online Inc. and Hudson Ventures have joined their list of investors, along with lead investor Lazard Technology Partners, the venture arm of Lazard Freres & Company.

MIAMI– GarageLatino.com, Latin America’s first business factory of Internet business, announced the start of its operations and the recent opening of its first “garage” in Buenos Aires, with an initial investment of over US$ 1.5 million. The company will provide not only know-how on the various projects it develops, but also the financial capacity to get them up and running. It will operate by opening true “factories”– spaces of over 1,000 m2 — with cutting-edge technology and the capacity for rapid product development, which will be managed by project leaders.

LOS ANGELES, — MusicNow Network, owners of music websites FirstLook.com (http://www.firstlook.com) and Woodstock.com (http://www.woodstock.com), announces its official name change to FirstLook.com Inc. Under the new name, the company plans to expand its music previewing site into other categories, allowing consumers to quickly discover and preview various new products on FirstLook.com. FirstLook.com Inc. is an idealab! company, backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and Woodstock Ventures, owners of the Woodstock Music Festival and trademark.

LOS ANGELES, Calif.– WeddingChannel.com, a bridal registry and wedding p

lanning resource on the World Wide Web, announced that NancyJane (NJ) Goldston, Erika Hart Hindle, and Brian Pike, have joined the company as executive vice president of marketing, vice president of finance and corporate development, and vice president of technology, respectively. WeddingChannel.com is a private company whose investors include MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., Goldman Sachs, MSD Capital, RRE Investors, idealab!, idealab! Capital Partners and Federated Department Stores.

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