Cosmoz.com Invests in Ridgewood Capital Venture Partners
July 6, 1999 01:28 PM
SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 6, 1999--
Cosmoz.com CMOZ today announced that it has invested $250,000 in a venture capital fund managed by Ridgewood Capital Venture Partners.
Ridgewood Capital specializes in acquiring significant interests in emerging companies with well-developed products in multi-billion dollar markets. Cosmoz.com is particularly impressed by Ridgewood Capital's ability to invest at an early stage thereby securing greater equity at much lower valuations.
Ridgewood Capital was an early investor in Medibuy.com, which recently completed a second round of venture funding, attracting the nation's most prominent venture funds, including Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital and Oak Partners. Ridgewood Capital is also the lead investor in InViso's first round of financing.
"We intend to maximize shareholder value by placing an investment with Ridgewood Capital", said Wilfred Shaw, CEO of Cosmoz.com. "We feel that such an investment, combined with the continued acquisition, development, and marketing of niche websites will significantly enhance the overall value of our portfolio."
Medibuy.com is an e-commerce business-to-business service matching online buyers and sellers of medical supplies, products and equipment. Registered buyers can post a request for proposal on the site and registered vendors will respond with their bids. The company anticipates over $100 million of revenue by 2001.
Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers made investments in America OnLine, Amazon.com, Netscape, and Healtheon. Sequoia Capital was an early investor in Cisco Systems, Yahoo! and Apple Computer, while Oak Partners were among the early investors in Compaq, Seagate Technologies, TheStreet.com and Inktomi.
InViso is a leading developer of the "micro-display", which uses "reflective CMOS" technology enabling users to view a postage stamp-sized LCD screen as if it were a 19-inch monitor. InViso investors include Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft.
The Cosmoz.com Network
The Cosmoz.com Portal is modeled after leading Portals and Internet Venture Companies such as Yahoo! YHOO , Go2Net, CMGI CMGI , Lycos LCOS , AltaVista CPQ , Excite XCIT and Netscape Netcenter AOL , as a stand alone business and with the expressed purpose of marketing the web sites within the Cosmoz Network. The Cosmoz.com integrated Portal provides several unique features, plus all the content, functioning and ease of navigation users expect from major Internet Portals. Additional features such as Free Email and Personalization are in the process of being integrated into the portal. Cosmoz.com owned web sites also provide unique content, integrated into the Cosmoz.com Portal. This adds value to the Cosmoz.com Portal, which advertises and serves as a window to other Cosmoz.com web sites. The Cosmoz.com Portal also provides corporate information such as Cosmoz.com news releases, contact information, employment opportunities, Corporate information and how to sell your web site.
"Cosmoz is now well-positioned to aggressively build the Cosmoz brand and network, accelerate the growth and acquisition strategies, and improve the existing properties and infrastructure," said Wilfred Shaw, Chairman and CEO.
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