Further £600,000 Investment in Exxactly.com

NewMedia SPARK PLC 10 April 2000 NewMedia SPARK invests a further £600,000 in Exxactly.com as part of a £1.6m second round funding NewMedia SPARK plc ('SPARK') announces that it has invested a further £600,000 in Exxactly.com (formerly Bridge4u.com) as part of a £1.6m second round funding. This funding is at a valuation of £15m for the business, approximately 12 times the value at which SPARK invested £350,000 for a 28% stake in Exxactly last November. Exxactly has launched a B2B financial portal servicing offshore IFA organisations and SPARK believes that its services are unique in what is a very large potential market. The Exxactly service has already received substantial interest from its target market. Enhanced functionality, including transactional capabilities, will progressively be added over the next few months. SPARK believes that Exxactly has the potential to grow into a substantial and valuable business. Commenting on this further investment Michael Whitaker, CEO of SPARK, said: 'We are pleased at the progress and valuation uplift of Exxactly. The recent second round funding for Skillvest, another of our portfolio companies, was also at a significant premium to our original investment price. A number of our other portfolio companies are also currently discussing further funding rounds, and in all cases the indications are that these will be at significant premiums to our original investment valuations. 'Notwithstanding the well publicised share price declines for many quoted Internet businesses in recent weeks, our view is that the venture capital market for funding our investee companies remains very healthy. Shareholders will also be aware that our portfolio of investee companies is heavily biased towards Internet infrastructure, wireless and financial B2B businesses, valuations of which remain strong. Overall, we therefore believe that we remain well placed to deliver strong investment returns to our shareholders and we intend to continue to expand our operations aggressively.' For further information, please contact: NewMedia SPARK Michael Whitaker Tel No: 0207 851 7777 Buchanan Communications Tim Anderson Tel No: 0207 466 5000
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