| Santa Barbara Technology Group Announces Two New Investments |
Santa Barbara, Calif., March 15, 2001 -- Santa Barbara Technology Group (SBTG), a leader in high-technology business development, today announced that it has made two new capital investments in a pair of young high-technology companies, Santa Rosa-based Accerra and Pasadena-based New.net. SBTG participated in Series A Preferred stock offerings in both companies. The investments allow SBTG to expand its presence to include both Northern and Southern California.
Accerra (http://www.accerra.com) develops business software that enables non-technical users to create, control, and share Internet content with colleagues and customers. Based on an easy-to-use web browser interface, Accerra software improves efficiency and allows for customization of sales, marketing, corporate communications, technical support and training information.
SBTG joins North Bay Partners, a San Francisco-based technology investment group, as an investor in Accerra. The company was founded in 1997 and is due to release version 2.0 of its software in late March.
New.net (http://www.new.net) is building a revolutionary domain name registry to meet the market demand for web addresses with logical, easy-to-remember extensions that make Internet navigation easier. New.net has developed proprietary software technology that uses the existing Internet naming system to enable millions of users to gain access to these new addresses.
The company, founded by idealab! in May 2000, launched its service earlier this month with 20 new top-level domains, including .shop, .game, .law, .mp3, .kids, and .inc. New.net plans to introduce additional new top-level domains based on consumer and business demand. The company has already signed partnership agreements with several of the largest Internet service providers, including Excite@Home, EarthLink, and NetZero.
“We’re excited about Accerra’s prospects for growth, and our investment also forges a promising new relationship with North Bay Partners, giving us better exposure to Silicon Valley investment opportunities and strategic partnerships,” said Jason Spievak, Senior Vice President of Investments for SBTG. “Our participation in New.net is a similar situation in that our new relationship with the idealab! team will create more opportunities for investments and partnerships in Southern California.”