'Billion Dollar Incubator's Incubator' Pumps Up With e-Business Solution; MetaIncubation Announces Hookup with B2B Exchange Enabler.

Business editors/Hi-Tech Writers

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 8, 2000

Never heard of the Universal Data Interface Corp. (UDICo)?

No surprise there -- UDICo is a behind-the-scenes player. Yet UDICo's middleware application handles a big percentage of the world's capital markets transaction processing. In fact, UDI middleware is installed in more than twenty global financial institutions. And, according to an announcement today, it's the latest piece in the MetaIncubation puzzle.

MetaIncubation.com is the New York-based venture services provider unveiled two weeks ago. Its billion-dollar launch funding, "incubate the incubators" approach, and no-nonsense rules have already attracted the attention of key incubators like idealab! and CMGI (NASDAQ:CMGI). Today's announcement will only help.

With UDI, MetaIncubation makes a high-end e-commerce integrator available to the Internet's next generation of business-to-business (B2B) start-ups -- a potent combination of sweat equity and bleeding-edge technology.

MetaIncubation CEO Alvin Donovan's take on the deal was straightforward: "Our incubator partners will leverage the UDICo tools to get to market 25% faster." Here's why. The UDI solution uses XML to let virtual markets happen in real time -- it's the software glue that brings different applications together by translating and transforming the data.

That lets online exchanges and trading platforms talk to other databases without a hitch." Analysts and investors are already excited about the technology: competitor webMethods (NASDAQ: WEBM) IPO'd in February 2000 to the tune of over $150 million.

The start-up was developed as a high-tech spin-out from global accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), led by then-Director of Financial Services Adam Greissman. Greissman was also one of the project co-founders of Financial products Markup Language (FpML), the Internet standard XML dialect for currency and interest rate derivatives.

Just a month after opening its doors, UDICo has more than $1 million in contracts at the term sheet stage, and a sales book of $2 million scheduled to close by early September.

MetaIncubation was one of its angel round investors, and the MetaIncubation-UDICo relationship announced today will see the tool become part of the incubator's turnkey packaged software solution aimed at getting startups to market in record time.

"This is a very strategic investment," noted Dave Woods of 21st Equity Partners, the VC firm scheduled to take MetaIncubation public soon. "We've analyzed a lot of companies in this space and they are the first ones to have a solution that works for both real-time transactions and high-volume batch processing, The B2B plus EAI double spin was a big plus for us."

"The UDI FpML Toolkit is going to give the company fantastic penetration in the capital markets, especially in OTC derivatives," agreed Metaincubation CFO Larry Handler. UDICo founder Adam Greissman will also become a MetaIncubation board member following the agreement. For more information, or to arrange interviews, please contact:

Adam Greissman UDICo tel: [phone] e-mail: [e-mail]

Alvin Donovan MetaIncubation.com http://www.metaincubation.com tel: [phone] e-mail: [e-mail]