Classmates.com Receives Substantial Venture Capitalist Funding.

Business/High Tech Editors

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2000

Seattle-based ClassMates.com announced a second-round of financing totaling $11 million from three venture capitalists; Arch Venture Partners, Madrona Investment Group and Brand Equity Ventures.

"This recent round of funding confirms that we are on the right track with our site." said Randy Conrads, Chairman and CEO of ClassMates.com. "With the help of our new partners, we will continue to focus on offering members the opportunity to revisit old memories and rekindle long lost friendships through the Web."

Although a relative unknown among the investment community, the nostalgia-based site piqued investor's interest when they reviewed the company's numbers. With more than 3.5 million registered members from 30,000 high schools in North America, ClassMates.com generates 125,000 daily visits and more than 1.5 daily impressions. Members return to the site again and again to locate long lost friends through ClassMates.com's vast database.

According to recent Nielsen/Net Ratings, ClassMates.com ranked in the top 150 web sites in November, 1999. The site also ranked 87th for the amount of time a visitor spent on the site with an average user visit of 10 minutes.

And the site continues to grow at a marked pace. Currently, over 450,000 alumni register at the site each month. Combine those numbers with the fact that last year the Internet company actually turned a small profit and investor interest was high.

All three of the ClassMates.com investors bring a broad range of experience to the company. Arch Venture Partners currently manages four funds totaling $325 million. With offices in Seattle, New York, Chicago and Albuquerque, Arch is a leader in bringing to market innovations in the Internet and e-commerce industries. The Connecticut-based Brand Equity Ventures is a leader in providing marketing strategies and approaches that maximize their clients national brand position. Madrona Investment Group is one of the premier venture capitalist firms in the Pacific Northwest with investments in companies like Amazon.com. Madrona has backed many of the most successful Internet based firms in the Western United States.

Along with its database resources, ClassMates.com also offers members an exciting range of additional benefits such as the web's largest collection of alumni message boards, on-line yearbooks, the Celebrity Yearbook Museum, Value Club -- an e-commerce shopping channel, and personal Then & Now photograph pages.

ClassMates.com was founded in 1996 by Randy Conrads and his wife Sharon. Since its inception, the Seattle-based company has grown from a start-up at-home business to a multi-faceted on line community offering members access to a directory of 3.5 million high school alumni from 30,000 high schools in North America.