Press Releases

Lumeria Announces Additional Funding And New Hires

Company Prepares for First Product Launches

January 29, 1999 (El Cerrito, CA) - Lumeria Inc., an Internet software startup, announced its completion of a seed funding round as well as several new hires that will bolster the company's management team in preparation for its first two product launches scheduled for the second quarter of 1999.

Lumeria's additional seed funding was provided by a group of angel investors that are providing the company with not just financial capital but also an impressive amount of intellectual capital. Lumeria's "smart money" angel investors include Joan Blades, Gene Thomas, Rich Levandov, Rich White, Joe Levy, and Waring Partridge. Blades cofounded Berkeley Systems, Inc., known for the After Dark screensaver and the YOU DON'T KNOW JACK netshow. Thomas was one of the cofounders of Micron Electronics, a major direct seller of personal computers. Levandov was a co-founder of Phoenix Technologies and former VP of Business Development at America Online. Blades, Levandov and Thomas also serve on Lumeria's Board of Directors. White is a founder of Best.com, Levy is the founder of CIO Magazine, and Partridge is the VP of Business Development and Corporate Strategy with AT&T.

Lumeria is also pleased to announce three important additions that the company has recently made to its management team: Gene Thomas, Chief Operating Officer; Colette McMullen, VP of Market Development; and Daniel Kumi, Director of Business Development. As mentioned earlier, Thomas was a cofounder of Micron, where he helped build the company from literally a trailer in field of sugar beets to a company with over $2 billion in sales in his five-year tenure. McMullen joins Lumeria from IDG, where she served as Group Publisher for industry-leading sites, such as JavaWorld, SunWorld, and LinuxWorld, where she is credited for the industry's first profitable online publication. Kumi was formerly Marketing Manager at Intellipost Corp., creators of BonusMail, and recently received his M.B.A. from UC Berkeley's prestigious Haas School of Business, where he specialized in Marketing and Management of Technology.

Lumeria was founded to create technology, software, and services that help people securely access, organize, and selectively share their information across networks. Lumeria assures individuals that their personal information will be private, secure, and available to them anytime, anywhere. The company can be reached via its Web site at www.lumeria.com.