June 25, 1999

Nanocosm, Inc., which earlier this month launched streaming MP3 webcast service Live365.com, has landed $13.4 million in private funding from investors based in both Hong Kong and Singapore [see 6.08.99 Nanocosm Enters Personal Webcasting Arena].

The capital is being provided by groups working through Christine Holdings Ltd. and Serenity International Ltd., holding companies that provided the seed money for Nanocosm. The financing will, among other things, help Nanocosm expand server space for Live365.com, which encourages music enthusiasts to webcast original programming over the Internet, using the MP3 audio format.

"We're moving forward with it whole hog," said Julie Gavrilis, media relations and promotions manager for Nanocosm.

Since its launch two weeks ago, Live365.com has increased its audience twenty-fold, according to Nanocosm. Because Live365.com is seeing hundreds of new users per day, according to Nanocosm Chief Technical Officer Peter Rothman, the site is looking to expand its broadcast capacity and features package.

The site's revenue model combines advertising, ecommerce and premium services, such as additional streams and storage space, for webcasters. Currently, the site allocates 100MB of free server space to users, and streaming capacity to support 100 simultaneous listeners/viewers. Nanocosm intends a more complete roll-out of Live365.com in July, in tandem with Jupiter Communications' Plug-In Conference, at which Nanocosm will be a presenting sponsor.

Once the site has been given its proper commercial debut, according to Nanocosm Vice President of Business Development Jennifer Johnson, Live365.com will look to pair up with Internet music portals, in order to further the service's distribution.

Additionally, Nanocosm intends to court U.S. investors in the near future, in order to attract more capital for undertaking further technical expansions to the service, Johnson said.

Reposted with Permission. Copyright 1999 Webnoize / Digital Music Network, Inc. - http://www.webnoize.com/