worth a look imo.
Lycos Korea gets SingTel cash
Krause better get his campus cooking quick because the local competition isn't standing still. SingTel Ventures has invested $5 million in Lycos Korea Inc. And the VC arm of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SGTJY: news, chart) says it'll continue to invest in start-ups that will drive Internet traffic and e-commerce. Two it has in mind: Trivnet, an Israeli firm that has come up with a simple "one-click" payment method for purchases online that can be settled through ISP billing; the other is Mercurix, a National Computer Systems spin-off whose product allows content providers to securely price and distribute digital merchandise such as music, videos and other multimedia stuff over the Net.
SingTel recently increased its fund size to 175 million Singapore dollars ($103 million), of which it has invested 77 million Singapore dollars in 19 companies worldwide. As for what's compelling about Lycos Korea, SingTel points out that the 3-million-strong population of Korean Web surfers is set to grow to 10 million by 2002, according to government estimates.Lycos Korea is a Web portal venture between Korea's Mirae Corp. (MRAE: news, chart) and Lycos Inc. of the U.S. (LCOS: news, chart). It provides localized content including sports, entertainment, financial investment information, maps, travel guides and weather forecasts. |
