TRADEX Technologies Closes $12 Million in New Round of Venture Funding.

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 1999--

Leading Provider of Internet Marketplace and Exchange Solutions

Accelerates Market Domination with Investments from Internet Capital

Group, Sigma Partners 

TRADEX Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of digital marketplace and exchange solutions that streamline the commerce process, today announced that it has closed $12 million in new private funding for the company. The lead investor on the new round is Internet Capital Group (www.internetcapital.com), with additional funding from Sigma Partners (www.sigmapartners.com). All of TRADEX' existing investors - Apex Investment Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, First Analysis Corporation, Imlay Investments and United Parcel Service - also are participating in the new round of funding.

Both Internet Capital Group and Sigma Partners are recognized for extensive hands-on experience in grooming hot Internet start-ups for successful IPOs. Internet Capital Group concentrates on assembling partner companies in two areas: Internet market makers - including VerticalNet and DejaNews - and back-office infrastructure providers such as MessageQuest and ClearCommerce.

"Internet Capital Group brings new Internet market makers together with infrastructure providers to give each a stronger competitive advantage," said Walter Buckley, CEO & President of Internet Capital Group, LLC. "TRADEX provides the comprehensive commerce platform for market makers and infrastructure providers that complements our existing partner companies. In our view, business-to-business e-commerce will be substantially enabled through the growth of digital marketplaces. TRADEX has the fundamental, customer-facing applications that will enable all of our partner companies to capitalize on this explosive opportunity."

At Sigma Partners, General Partner Robert Davoli played an instrumental part in the TRADEX investment. A 17-year veteran technology entrepreneur, Davoli is recognized for directing the recent, highly successful IPOs of both Internet Security Systems (ISS), a leading developer of intrusion detection software, and Vignette, a content management company that went public in just three years.

"TRADEX has all the attributes of other successful companies I've worked with," said Davoli. "Their strong vision, technology, business model and management team will enable them to capitalize on the digital marketplace opportunity and achieve a similar level of success. The TRADEX marketplace solution is head-and-shoulders above other business-to-business commerce offerings, and is generating an impressive list of marquee customers and partners."

The new venture capital investment will substantially enable TRADEX to extend its leadership position in delivering business-to-business e-commerce solutions that help customers create new multi-buyer, multi-seller marketplaces over the Internet. Over the past six months, TRADEX has delivered e-commerce solutions for a wide variety of customers including Raytheon, Nippon Telephone & Telegraph, MetalSite, PlasticsNet and others. Currently, MetalSite is rapidly approaching its goal of processing 100,000 tons of steel per month on its marketplace, and estimated transactions are expected to reach $50 million per month by the end of 1999. At Raytheon, more than 2000 transactions per day are being processed with estimated cost savings of almost $100 per transaction.

"This round of venture funding was substantially oversubscribed, and we have chosen the financial partners who will help TRADEX to achieve its fullest potential," said Daniel Aegerter, Chief Executive Officer of TRADEX. "Digital marketplaces are the logical evolution of business-to-business electronic commerce, and TRADEX is consistently recognized as the leading provider of digital marketplace solutions. Our proven track record of delivering successful solutions, combined with our aggressive market strategy, industry-leading commerce management platform, and long-term commerce process vision, equips TRADEX to dominate in this lucrative market."

Both Robert Davoli of Sigma Partners and Paul Slaats, Vice President of Internet Capital Group, will join the TRADEX Board of Directors. Prior to joining Sigma Partners in 1995, Davoli served as President & CEO of Epoch Systems, the leading vendor of client-server data management software products. He sold the firm in 1993 to EMC for $141 million. He is also the former Founder, President and CEO of SQL Solutions, a leading purveyor of services and tools for the relational database market. At the Internet Capital Group, Paul Slaats identifies and analyzes potential partnership candidates, and has been closely involved with many partner companies. His 12-year background in information technology includes sales management and senior marketing positions with IBM, and Marcam Corporation and SAP America.

TRADEX Marketplace & Exchange Solutions

TRADEX' industry-leading marketplace and exchange solutions provide the highest level of functionality for streamlining the commerce process and creating Internet-based, multi-buyer/multi-seller relationships. The TRADEX Commerce Center(tm) platform is based on a unique Commerce Management Architecture, a comprehensive software platform designed to support thousands of users in a Web-based, high transaction volume environment.

Commerce Center incorporates an open, component-based design that provides great extensibility to meet individual customer requirements, while delivering scalability, performance and flexibility to accommodate diverse multi-buyer and multi-seller requirements. Commerce Center also provides fully integrated security features that ensure controlled access over corporate intranets, extranets and the Internet.

About TRADEX:

TRADEX Technologies is the leading provider of business-to-business marketplace and exchange solutions that enable customers to streamline the commerce process and maximize the financial and operational benefits of electronic commerce. The TRADEX Commerce Center(tm) architecture and applications are uniquely designed to enable the creation of new digital marketplaces.

Over the past six months, TRADEX has provided solutions to a variety of diverse industry customers, including Raytheon, Nippon Telephone & Telegraph (NTT), MetalSite, PlasticsNet and others, to implement a variety of multi-buyer, multi-seller digital marketplaces.

Founded in 1996, TRADEX is a privately held, venture-backed company headquartered in Tampa, FL with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, DC, London and Tokyo. The company's Web site is www.tradex.com.