Subject: Venture News, Monday, November 20, 2000
From: [email-masked]
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Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 02:21:00 -0800 (PST)

USA: ICE says 150 mln bbls oil traded in first month.

NEW YORK - The IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) said Friday it had traded 150 
million barrels of crude and refined products since the October 12 launch of 
its web-based energy trading platform.

It marks a 110 million barrel rise in cumulative oil volumes since October 26 
for the online venture, backed by some of the world's biggest energy firms 
and offering derivative contracts outside regulated exchanges for energy and 
metals.

ICE said it traded more than 2 million megawatt hours of power on Thursday, 
its highest yet.

The site has traded a total 800 million mmBTUs (million British Thermal 
Units) of natural gas and natural gas derivatives, and 22 million 
megawatt-hours of firm power as of close of trading November 16.

ICE has also traded a total of 15 million gold and gold equivalent ounces 
since precious metals contracts were launched on August 24, the company said 
in a statement.

Some 85 of the world's largest energy and financial commodity firms are 
participating in its contracts, it added. The total notional value for all 
OTC products traded to date on ICE is over $13 billion.

Original partners in the Atlanta-based exchange are BP Amoco Plc , 
Royal/Dutch Shell , TotalFina , Goldman Sachs , Societe Generale ,Morgan 
Stanley Dean Witter and Deutsche Bank .

In July, six further gas and power partners were recruited - American 
Electric Power , Utilicorp's Aquila Energy , Duke Energy , El Paso Energy , 
Reliant Energy and Southern Company Energy Marketing .

There are currently at least 16 other energy trading Web sites on the 
Internet, but traders have said that with the backing of seven major banks 
and oil companies, ICE could provide the stiffest challenge yet to 
traditional ways of doing business.

____________________________________________________________

CheMatch.com has layoffs, expects new financing
Nov 20, 2000 08:57 AM ET 

HOUSTON, Nov. 20 -- CheMatch.com Inc., an Internet marketplace for buying and 
selling bulk commodity chemicals, plastics and fuel products, has completed a 
restructuring that involved layoffs, and it expects to secure additional 
funding by the end of the year. 

"We did have a restructuring and a handful of layoffs," Clay Jeansonne, 
CheMatch.com spokesman confirmed to LocalBusiness.com late Friday. "The 
company reviews its structure periodically." 

CheMatch.com was started in 1998 and has posted six consecutive quarters of 
growth. At one point, the company had 93 employees, and it currently has 85 
employees, Jeansonne said. 

Jeansonne said the company expects to bring in new funding from venture 
capital companies and from technology companies. He declined to elaborate on 
the possible amount of funding. 

"We do expect to get some additional funding by the end of the year," he 
said. 

Already the company's strategic and financial investors include Battery 
Ventures, Bayer AG (NYSE: BAYZY), Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC; Dupont 
(NYSE: DD), GE (NYSE: GE)and Millennium Chemicals (NYSE: MCH). 

October IPO postponed
The possibility of raising more money privately was part of the reason that 
CheMatch.com withdrew its initial public offering on Oct. 6. "We had nibbles 
out there so we postponed the IPO," Jeansonne told LocalBusiness.com. 

Market conditions also were cited as the reason in documents filed with the 
Securities and Exchange Commission. CheMatch.com had filed for the IPO on 
March 1, and in April had set the price at $10 to $12 a share and the number 
of shares at 5 million. It had requested to be traded on the Nasdaq under the 
symbol "CHEM" but had made no move to actually start selling stock. 

CheMatch.com's competitors include ChemCross of Houston and ChemConnect of 
San Francisco. ChemConnect had filed for an IPO in the spring but withdrew 
the offering during the summer, saying it would wait until the IPO market 
improves. 

Partnerships continue
In mid-September, CheMatch.com and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced 
a joint agreement to develop a co-branded complex of certain petrochemical 
futures and options products to trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's 
GLOBEX2 electronic trading system. 

This marked the first joint development project between the futures exchange 
and a business-to-business marketplace to create risk management products for 
a specific industry, a news release at the time said. 

In late September, CheMatch.com announced a total of more than 1 million 
metric tons of product had been traded on its network, representing some $350 
million worth of transactions. The average transaction value is worth more 
than $500,000. 

Third-quarter 2000 trading reflected completed transactions from more than 70 
member companies. The physical product offering has grown from eight products 
at this time last year to 63 products currently. 
______________________________________________________

PwC to launch online CO2 exchange

PricewaterhouseCoopers is poised to launch a major online marketplace for 
trading in greenhouse gas emissions. PwC, which has formed CO2e.com in 
partnership with the Cantor Fitzgerald, is expected to announce the portal 
tomorrow at the climate change conference in The Hague.

Trading in emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) is 
expected to play a key role in global efforts to combat global warming and 
climate change by reducing emissions overall.

There is fierce debate as to whether countries which cannot meet their 
emission targets under international protocols, or do not wish to, should be 
able to buy emission "credits" from countries which can.

In future individual companies may also have "permits" to emit greenhouse 
gases which they could trade like any other commodity. According to Steve 
Drummond, PwC's global head of Climate Change Financial Advisory Services, 
trading in greenhouse gases may become one of the fastest growing commodity 
markets in the world.

Trading in emissions has been the subject of heated discussion since the 1997 
Kyoto meeting on climate change. CO2e.com hopes to exploit the fact that, 
under the Kyoto protocol, which has yet to be signed off, trading in emission 
reductions may be banked now by companies and used against emissions 
obligations which may be set by law in the future.

"The emission reductions now can be offset against those which can be made in 
the future. The risk could be that the protocol will not be signed, but this 
really started at the Rio summit in 1992 and everything is on track so far," 
Drummond said.

"There is huge momentum behind this."

Drummond said CO2e.com will act not just as an online marketplace but as a 
single point of entry for corporations which need to understand and cope with 
their duties in terms of climate change. The aim of the portal is to help 
companies establish what their position is and what they need to do now or in 
future. The site will also refer clients to consultants with a good track 
record in environmental and emissions issues.

Drummond said there are already sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide "emission 
reduction" markets in the US which have proved successful.

"Everyone anticipates that this market will be huge. People want to figure 
out what the issues are. When the legislation and the various regimes are 
established, reductions in emissions will have a real value," he said.

Fred Krupp of Environmental Defence, one of the leading environmental 
organisations in the US, said: "It is encouraging to see the emergence of 
carbon commerce entrepreneurs like CO2e.com who can build both the pathways 
and the incentive for market-based solutions to global warming."

______________________________________________________-

o Oil & Gas ASP GeoNetServices.com Gets Round Two Funding

HOUSTON -- GeoNetServices.com, an application service
provider for the oil and gas industry, said it received
an undisclosed amount of second round funding from
ISIS, a French technological holding company specialized
in the oil and gas industry. Charles Prevot, chief
executive officer at Isis, will join the company's
board of directors. The company will use the funds
to build its infrastructure and as working capital.
The company has received $1 million in funding from
East River Ventures.
http://www.geonetservices.com/
_____________________________________________

o 3i Invests $9.9 Million in Battery Developer Ion Energy

LONDON -- 3i, a European venture capital firm, said
it invested $9.9 million in battery developer Ion
Energy Research. Ion Energy develops lithium polymer
batteries for powering mobile telephones and handheld
devices. The investment from 3i will enable Ion
Energy Research to commission new production lines
for production capabilities in excess of 500,000
cells a month at a new production facility in Bologna,
Italy. Ion Energy telephone +44-207-300-6406.
http://www.3i.com/
_____________________________________________

o Workflow App Firm Pivotry Raises $1 Million Seed Round

RESTON, Va. -- Pivotry, which makes a workflow management
application, said it has raised over $1 million
in a seed round from individuals including Bruce
Handricks, a shareholder in idealab!; Rob Draughon,
executive vice president of new business development
for WebMD; and Aileen Pugh, former CFO of Telebanc,
which was recently acquired by E*Trade. These three
investors will sit on Pivotry's board of directors.
The company said it will use the funds to develop
the first version of its product and to attract
initial clients.
http://www.pivotry.com/
_____________________________________________

o European Firm Net Partners Closes $161.4 Million Fund

BRUSSELS -- Net Partners, a European venture capital
firm that invests in Internet startups, said it
closed a new fund at EUR 190 million ($161.4 million).
The new fund, which was incorporated as a Belgian
company, Nestor 2000, was raised from U.S. and European
investors. The fund will make investments through
Net Partners' offices in Brussels, London, and Milan.
The company will focus its investment strategies
on companies in the online finance, support services,
and wireless segments of the marketplace. Net Partners
said the fund will make investments in 15-20 new
companies.
http://www.net-partners.com/

____________________________________________

o B2B Platform for African Market Gets $300,000 Seed Round

NEW YORK -- Afridaq, which is creating a business-to-business
information and transactional platform to target
Africa's financial markets, said it raised $300,000
in seed capital from individual investors. Afridaq
said it will use the funds for Web site prototype
development, team building, and general corporate
purposes.
http://www.afridaq.com/
_____________________________________________

o Broadband Firm SwitchPoint Lands $20 Million Series B

OREM, Utah -- SwitchPoint Networks, formerly AirSwitch,
a provider of broadband residential and business
networking services, said it completed a $20 million
Series B round of financing. Previous investor Omninet
Capital led the round with additional funding from
Synapse Capital, Chase Mittel Capital Fund II, Private
Equity Partners, and Richmond I. The company is
also backed by AirSwitch Partners and individual
investors. Neil Kadisha, CEO of Omninet Capital,
also serves as Switchpoint's chairman of the board.
The company will use the funding to accelerate its
deployment of peer-to-peer, Ethernet-based technologies
into metropolitan markets in the U.S. and abroad.
http://www.switchpointnetworks.com/
_____________________________________________

o Mobile Web App Firm iMedeon Gets $15.5 Million Round Two

ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- iMedeon, a provider of wireless
Web applications for mobile workforce management,
said it raised $15.5 million in its second round.
Investors include GE Equity, GE Power Systems, Aether,
Enron, and previous investor Insight Capital Partners.
Warren Ferguson, president of GE Smallworld, will
join the company's board of directors. The company
will use the funds to expand its marketing and sales,
product development, international initiatives,
and to expand its management team.
http://www.imedeon.com/
_____________________________________________

o Net Infrastructure Firm Zama Secures $17.4 Million Round Two

SEATTLE -- Zama Networks, which develops Internet
infrastructure and IP backbone technologies, said
it raised $17.4 million in its second round of funding
led by Convergent Investors. Japan-based Mobile
Internet Capital and Mitsui & Company also participated
in the round. Zama said it will use the funds to
support the company's data center needs and the
initial deployment phase of its new network. The
company also announced it has appointed Dennis Okamoto,
the former treasurer, controller and vice president
for strategic business planning at USWest Communications,
as the company's new chief executive officer.
http://www.zama.net/
_____________________________________________

o Network Services Firm Onsite Access Pulls IPO

NEW YORK -- Onsite Access, a provider of fiber/xDSL-based
network access to multi-tenant properties, pulled
its IPO. The company cited current market conditions
for the withdrawal in a filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. Onsite Access is backed
by investors including AT&T Ventures, Crosspoint
Venture Partners, Frontline Capital Group, JP Morgan
Capital, Microsoft, Spectrum Equity Investors, and
Veritech Ventures.
http://www.onsiteaccess.com/