Financial Info Site Raises $2 Million

By Christine Gordon

Friday, January 21st, 2000 5:00 PM Eastern Time

NEW YORK, Jan. 21 /www.atnewyork.com/ -- Does the world need another Internet financial news and services portal? It seems to be a reasonable question in a universe full of CBS Marketwatches, SmartMoneys, and TheStreet.Coms.

But like it or not, Silicon Alley has a new kid on the financial news beat, Money.Net. The venture, which launched in October, announced this week that it has closed a deal for $2 million of first-round financing from private investors including former chairman of Oppenheimer, Nate Gantcher, who owns a venture fund called Net Associates, and Chris Blair, who ran Morgan Stanley Assets Management Technology Fund in 1997 and has his own venture capital group-- C. Blair Asset Managements, as well as venture firm Covenant Capital.

The company offers the usual array of financial news, stock quotes and the like, with a twist--free, real time, streamed stock quotes that can be personalized. And company CEO Harold Van Arnem has bigger ambitions.

"Our name is money, so we're not limited in any way," said Van Arnem. "Our name allows us to be the premier destination for people. People won't type in MarketWatch.com or theStreet.com they will go to check out money."

Van Armen hopes to offer surfers everything from news and quotes to access to online trading and insurance services. Money.net is negotiating e-commerce deals with InsWeb.com, an online insurance company, CreditLand.com, a mortgage and loan information company, and several unnamed brokerage firms and financial planning and banking companies, according to Van Arnem. In the near future, Money.net will provide users with e-commerce features that include banking and trading. Within those areas, subscribers will be able to trade stocks, pay bills, secure mortgages, and purchase insurance policies.

The new money will be used to expand the company's marketing base through distribution deals for it's streamed quotes and through cross marketing deals with nationalreview.com, the conservative magazine's online site; Onvia.com, an online site for small business owners; Infonautics Corporation's site Companysleuth.com, a finance site that searches the Internet for legal information on selected companies; and Bizee.com, a business portal. "We are very pleased to be partnering with these 60 sites," said Van Arnem. "By working with such a wide variety of Web sites, money.net will reach a whole new audience."

Van Arnem is in the process of raising second round financing he said would top out at $10 million. Until then, Money.net will support its free real-time stock tracking service with ad revenue. Advertisers include Cnet.com and MapQuest.com. Currently, Money.net charges advertisers $40.00 a month for every 1,000 ads.

SOURCE @NewYork
Web Site: http://www.atnewyork.com