Cenquest Raises Additional $6 Million in Third Round Funding as E-learning Market Takes Shape.

Business Editors

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 6, 2001

U.S. Trust's Excelsior Venture Partners III Fund Added To List of Investors As Company Gains Momentum In Customized Corporate Education

Cenquest, a leading provider of company-customized graduate degree programs over the Internet, today announced it has raised an additional $6 million in third round VC funding.

The new funding follows the company's recently announced partnership with the TRIUM global MBA program, and further positions Cenquest as emerging leaders in a potentially explosive market.

The investors, led by Sevin Rosen Funds, also included Venture Partners and new backing from Excelsior Venture Partners III, LLC, a newly formed venture capital fund managed by U.S. Trust Company of New York.

"This new round of funding highlights the fact that we believe Cenquest has found an e-learning business model that works," said David Shrigley of Sevin Rosen Funds. "As the dust settles on this evolving industry, we believe Cenquest will emerge as a pioneer and leader."

Cenquest was the first e-learning company to partner with prestigious universities to offer company-customized degrees. It is also one of the first companies to define and fill the role of school-to-employer (S2E) intermediary; helping bring established universities and companies together in mutually beneficial partnerships.

The new funding will be used to enhance its intermediary capabilities and develop new courseware for future university/corporation partnerships. In addition to the recently announced TRIUM partnership involving New York University's Stern School of Business, the London School of Economics and HEC Paris, Graduate Business School, Cenquest has played an instrumental role in helping develop and manage corporate customized degree programs such as the one currently being implemented with Babson College for Intel Corporation.

"Prominent high-tech execs have made much of e-learning as the next killer app," said Cenquest CEO, LaVonne Reimer Young. "But the big e-learning story is not about self-study modules with content of indeterminate origin languishing on big company servers. It is about combining validated content with robust learning communities; programs delivered via a platform that makes it easy to track ROI and knowledge transfer."

About Cenquest

Cenquest is one of the only e-learning companies to offer corporations university degree programs and other university courses that have been customized to meet company-specific needs. Cenquest's online classes provide working professionals a flexible learning experience that is in many ways superior to traditional classroom learning. Cenquest courses are highly interactive, instructor-mediated and event driven. They offer the interactive element of traditional classes through online discussions and collaboration between students and faculty. Cenquest also offers a full range of necessary support and delivery services required to enable e-learning events, including faculty support, training, student registrations, tracking and event management and hosting. For more information about Cenquest visit www.cenquest.com or call 503/276-7900.