They join 13 other presenting companies who were selected in January and early February. Those companies are:
LIPSinc.
Engineous Software, Inc.
Derivatives Net, Inc.
Delta Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
BIOLEX, Inc.
Foveon Corporation
Marathon Innovations
Xanthon, Inc.
InvoiceLink Corporation
Insect Biotechnology Inc.
LendingTree, Inc.
Technauts, Inc.
OpenSite Technologies, Inc.

Early Stage Presenting Companies (these companies will present on Wednesday April 28, 1999, from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m.)
3TEX, Inc.
Bloodhound Software, Inc.
Bonita Software
DataFlux
DbTag, Inc.
Empower Corporation
Epiteleo
Global Recruiting Solutions
Industrial Microwave Systems, Inc.
iRenaissance
Mantha Software, Inc.
Mediappraise Corporation
Shadow Solutions

Research Triangle-based Cronos Integrated Microsystems, Inc., www.memsrus.com, provides proprietary, advanced Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) devices and products that are used pervasively in a broad application and market spectrum. For the last seven years, Cronos existed as an integrated strategic unit within the MCNC Corporation, and now the company is being spun off as a separate enterprise. Revenues for 1998 exceeded $6 million, realized primarily through commercial device sales, joint development programs, licensing agreements and development contracts from DARPA and other government agencies. Cronos currently has approximately $3 million in funding from MCNC and is seeking an additional $5 million.

Chapel Hill-based Electrifier Inc., www.electrifier.com, is the first software company to develop and market a powerful, next-generation multimedia platform that harnesses the power of new computer technologies and allows businesses to communicate more effectively using the Internet. The company's first product, Electrifier Pro, enables companies to present products, information and advertising on the World Wide Web as complex, rich multimedia even at slow connection speeds. In the first month after Electrifier Pro was shipped, the software program was awarded the 1998 Mac Report Editor's Choice Award for Best Digital Video Application and won a Best of Show Award at David Coursey's Showcase '99, the third annual executive conference highlighting the best new technology products. Electrifier is seeking $1-2 million.

Research Triangle-based ICAgen, Inc., www.icagen.com, is a pharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of small molecule drugs that target ion channels in the cardiovascular, central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract and other systems. The company combines proven therapeutic targets with novel chemistry to produce quality lead compounds for a wide spectrum of therapeutic needs. ICAgen has established collaborative relationships with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott Laboratories, ArQule, Inc. and Incyte Pharmaceuticals. Current investors, who provide a total of $15 million, are Medical Science Partners Funds, Venrock Associates and Abbott Laboratories. Founded in 1992, ICAgen hopes to maintain continued interest in the venture capital community as the company evolves and expands during 1999.

Durham-based NetGift Registry, LLC, www.netgiftregistry.com, is an Internet-based all-occasion multi-vendor gift registry service. NetGift Registry will consist of a master web site and a network of co-branded portal web sites where individuals can register their gift desires for any occasion and gift-givers can place on-line orders from a personalized list. Participating retailers will then pay NetGift Registry a percentage of sales on transactions generated through the service. The company has letters of intent signed with 9 initial partners and is in various stages of discussion with 15 other retail partners who have expressed interest. Founded in 1998, NetGift Registry has received $250,000 from Fusion Ventures and is seeking an additional $2.5 million.

Winston-Salem-based Pilot Biotechnologies, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of proprietary nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products. The company's products target processes controlled by fatty acids, fatty acid metabolites and fat soluble vitamins for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancer. Pilot Biotechnologies is a technology transfer from the Wake Forest School of Medicine and has two subsidiaries: Pilot Nutriceuticals Corporation and Pilot Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Pilot Biotechnologies, Inc.'s products are based upon significant prior research developing compounds serving identified niches that are not satisfactorily addressed by the market. The company, which was founded in 1998, currently has $750,000 in funding from Centennial Venture Partners, the Wake Forest School of Medicine, Dr. Floyd H. Chilton and Phil Johnston and is seeking an additional $5 million.

Raleigh-based Tot@l Sports, Inc., info.totalsports.net, is a digital media, technology and sports marketing company that currently operates four online networks, including www.golf.com, www.totalcollegesports.com, www.totalbaseball.com and www.worldbillfishseries.com. The company has made a name for itself by TotalCasting the NCAA Final Four Championships and the World Series over the Internet. Total Sports also produces the official encyclopedias for Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the National Hockey League. Total Sports in its present form was founded in March 1997 and is in its early startup stage, although its roots go back to 1994 with the founding of Nando.net, the first on-line newspaper. In three years the company has pursued an aggressive "roll-up" strategy, acquiring specialized sports information companies which are leaders in their market niches and bringing onboard the talented people who began and nurtured them. With current funding of $13 million from Piedmont Venture Partners, Nuray Holding, Bull Run Corporation, Winstar New Media and Host Communications, Tot@l Sports is seeking an additional $10-15 million.

Cary-based XS, Inc., www.xschem.com, is the first auction service provider to embrace the Internet for online commerce of crop protection materials. The company' primary service, XSChem, will operate an Internet auction site which allows the various players in the agricultural chemical industry - manufacturers, distributors, dealers and growers - to anonymously buy and sell products through an open forum in which prices are determined "real time" based on the fundamentals of supply and demand. Transactions are completed securely and automatically via pre-arranged banking and freight arrangements. Founded in 1998, XS, Inc. currently has $500,000 in private funding and is seeking an additional $2 million.

Research Triangle-based LIPSinc., www.lipsinc.com, is a software company that incorporates unique and innovative technology in creating a new line of products for lip synchronization in the animation industry. The company's newest product, "Ventriloquist," significantly cuts down on the time and effort spent in coordinating lip synchronization for animation by analyzing human speech and automatically outputting the precise corresponding mouth, jaw, and lip-position data in three dimensions. Founded in February 1998, Lips, Inc. is the latest in the series of technology commercialization projects evolving from the Technology Education and Commercialization (TEC) Program at North Carolina State University. Lips, Inc. is seeking $1 million.

Research Triangle-based Engineous Software, Inc., www.engineous.com, is a leading developer of advanced engineering management software products and services for industries utilizing computer simulation models that facilitate the design of large-scale, industrial products. ISIGHT, the company's key product line, enables engineering designers to explore more design alternatives and reach optimal designs faster. Key customers include Boeing, Caterpiller, Ford, GE, GM, Hitachi, Honda and NASA. Engineous Software was named in the 1998 Hot 100 by Dun & Bradstreet/ Entrepreneur Magazine. The company currently has funding of $10 million from Young Management Group, Wachovia Capital Associates, Noro-Moseley Partners and GE Investment and is seeking an additional $5 million.

Charlotte-based Derivatives Net, Inc., www.blackbird.net, is a software company that was founded in 1996 to develop and operate an Internet-based electronic trading system for OTC derivative dealers around the world. The system, called Blackbird, initially is being used to handle forward rate agreements and will eventually be used to conduct a variety of brokering services, all in a secure Internet environment. The software will greatly reduce the cost of conducting these kinds of deals.

Research Triangle-based Delta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of new and safer strong analgesics, urinary incontinence agents, and other therapeutic applications based on novel delta receptor compounds. The company's lead product, DPI-3290, has recently completed Phase I clinical trials with very favorable results. The company has also targeted four other lead products for development, three of which have a potential market in excess of $1 billion/year. Delta, which was founded in 1996, currently has $3.5 million in funding from private investors and is seeking an additional $5 million.

Research Triangle-based BIOLEX, Inc. is a protein technology company that has developed a highly-efficient and cost-effective production system for pharmaceutical proteins and other functional protein products. Unlike traditional biotech companies, Biolex will initially pursue the bioproduction of already approved and marketed products such as insulin and Cerezyme, entering into strategic relationships in the development of these products. Founded in 1998, Biolex is seeking $5 million in seed financing. The company currently has funding from Intersouth Partners, Kitty Hawk Capital and Centennial Venture Partners.

Research Triangle-based Foveon Corporation, www.foveon.com, provides on-line vendors, merchants and service providers with neutral, third-party reference data about their e-commerce transactions. These data are collected completely anonymously and do not require user consent, provide unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution, capture the full range of Internet activities and are more representative of Internet users because of the elimination of self-selection bias. Foveon was founded in 1998 and currently has $2.5 million from Intersouth Partners, TIG and individual investors. The company is seeking $6 million.

Marathon Innovations, www.marathoninnovations.com, is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Marathon Group, a regional Internet professional services firm focused on building enterprise-wide eCommerce solutions. While eCommerce solutions have historically been focused on simply taking orders through the Web, successful initiatives require the incorporation of customer relationship management and loyalty programs as well as the campaign management of one-to-one marketing programs based on consumer profiling. Marathon Innovations is an Internet software company committed to this second phase of eCommerce -- eMarketing. The product, SmartPath MAS, is part of the rapidly emerging software market known as Marketing Automation Software (MAS) or as Enterprise Marketing Automation (EMA) software. Marathon Innovations is privately held and funded through a first-round investment led by Intersouth Partners. It is Marathon's intent to become the premier provider of integrated Web-based solutions to automate all aspects of eMarketing. To date, Marathon Innovations has been funded from revenues and one round of venture capital ($2.5 million). In July, Marathon will begin seeking $4 million in new investment capital.

Research Triangle-based Xanthon, Inc., www.xanthoninc.com, is a biotechnology company developing micro-electrochemical systems with broadly enabling applications in genomics, drug discovery, and clinical diagnostics. The core XANTHON technology is an electronic process what will identify and quantitate key genes and proteins that are the targets of modern biological assays. Founded in 1996 with technology developed at UNC-Chapel Hill, Xanthon is led by a team of seasoned bioscience entrepreneurs and world-class scientists. With existing funding of $3 million from Franklin Street Fairview Capital, Intersouth Partners and the NC Technological Development Authority, Xanthon is seeking $6 million.

Greensboro-based InvoiceLink Corporation, www.invoicelink.com is developing innovative software products for Internet bill delivery and payment (IBDP) that helps help billers move customer operations functions to the web through licensed software rather than service bureau relationships. InvoiceLink received an initial round of $1.25 million from Intersouth Partners.

Research Triangle-based Insect Biotechnology Inc., www.insectbio.com, is developing the next generation of safer, environmentally friendlier biorational insecticides based on patented peptide-based technology from the University of Florida. Founded in 1993, IBI received $1.4 million in funding in 1998, lead by the Aurora Funds, and seeks $3 million.

Charlotte-based LendingTree, Inc., www.lendingtree.com, is an online loan center that connects borrowers to a network of lenders who compete for their business. LendingTree's proprietary filtering software matches borrowers and lenders in order to maximize approvals across all loan types and enables lenders to respond to loan applicants in minutes. Funded at $10 million by Phoenix Home Life Insurance and wealthy individuals, LendingTree projects revenues of $16 million in 1999.

Research Triangle-based Technauts, Inc., www.technauts.com, was founded in 1997 to provide a small business Internet server that comes prepackaged with web services, email services, file services, print services, and more. Technauts is seeking a second round of $5 million to follow initial funding of $2 million received from Cordova Ventures, Timark LP, Gray Ventures, Aurora Funds and others. Technauts founding management team includes key architects of Cisco's systems and IBM's network development group.

Research Triangle-based OpenSite Technologies, Inc. www.opensite.com is the market leader in offering a comprehensive solution for hosting online, interactive Internet auctions on customers' own Web sites. Founded in 1996, OpenSite finished its first round of financing in September 1998, raising $4 million from a group of investors including Noro-Moseley Partners of Atlanta, RTP funds Intersouth Partners and Southeast Interactive, and the Charlotte-based Wakefield Group. OpenSite Technologies won Best of Class at Internet Commerce Expo in Los Angeles and Best of Show at Fall Internet World.

Research Triangle-based 3TEX, Inc. engineers and produces fiber products for biomedical, body protection, industrial and infrastructure applications wit a strong emphasis on design, modeling, predictive performance and selling to the consumer. The 3TEX offering will be 3-dimesional, 5-dimensional and circular fiber sheet or preform rigid composite products. 3TEX has exclusive license of two primary process patents owned by N.C. State University. The company, founded in 1998, plans to open a new 6,000 square foot facility this spring. 3TEX is seeking $3-4 million over the next two years.

Research Triangle-based Bloodhound Software, Inc. develops and markets applications based on new and very powerful multi-dimensional database indexing and knowledge acquisition technologies. BHS provides and end-to-end solution for building and using a data warehouse with software built around a proprietary toolkit implemented for use on industry standard computer platforms. This multi-dimensional search and indexing software offers fast and effective data scrubbing, mining, transformation and decision-support applications. Founded in 1997, Bloodhound is seeking $500,000.

Research Triangle-based Bonita Software, Inc., www.bonitasoftware.com, is one of the first companies to create Java solutions for mobile smartphones. The company's goal is to be the premier supplier of mobile solutions software for the rapidly growing mobile workforce. Bonita's ToGo Mobile Application Portfolio (MAP) and ToGo Mobile Solution Platform (MSP) operate on all types of handheld computers, and ToGo leverages Java and wireless technologies to integrate portable platforms into enterprise networks. Using the ToGo Remote Commander, mobile workers using smartphones can access any and all on-line corporate resources at any time, including their own desktops, while minimizing connect time. Bonita currently has $500,000 in venture capital from Renaissance Ventures and Cordova Capital, and is seeking an additional $2 million.

Research Triangle-based DataFlux Corporation, www.dataflux.com, develops and commercializes leading-edge plug-and-play Data Quality Control software products. DataFlux's flagship product, the dfPower series, is designed to significantly improve the accuracy, consistency and usability of an organization's critical data, thereby enhancing the ROI's of data warehousing, data mining, sales force automation and other database-solutions initiatives. The company's SDK software allows data quality functions to be embedded directly into the client's own custom applications. Founded in 1997, DataFlux is seeking $2 million.

Research Triangle-based dbTag, Inc. has developed a unique radio frequency tagging system which enables users to detect, track and identify people or objects, without direct contact or line-of-sight between the tag and the reader. Some of the key features of the system are passive (no battery) tags, long read range, unique and unalterable identification code on each tag, capability to store/retrieve user definable information on a tag via a controller and excellent object penetration. Founded in 1998, dbTag is seeking $500,000.

Research Triangle-based Empower Corporation, www.empower-co.com, produces enterprise knowledge-management software products aimed at impacting individual and organizational performance. Empower is dedicated to providing the most innovative and effective online learning and performance management software solutions by combining cutting-edge Internet technologies with the best practices in learning and human performance. The company has two products. Online Learning Infrastructure is an architecture for the development and management of collaborative web-based training and knowledge management systems. KaleidoScope is a comprehensive set of web tools that provide a full range of analysis, design, authoring, administration and management capabilities. Empower is seeking $2 million.

Research Triangle-based Epiteleo will provide personal information management software by developing a pen-on-paper-based user-interface, allowing paper planner users to have seamless electronic PIM. Epiteleo will be the first to provide personal information management support, including calendaring, to-do lists, contact lists and note management, for the CrossPad platform. Epiteleo is seeking $1.24 million.

Research Triangle-based Global Recruiting Solutions, www.grs-software.com, provides enterprise scale hiring process management systems for human resource organizations and staffing agencies. GRS's flagship product, IRIS (the Internet Recruiting Information System), leverages the power of the Internet to automate and manage all processes throughout the recruiting lifecycle. IRIS is the first product in its space to tie together all processes related to hiring, including recruitment advertising, Internet recruiting, diversity planning and monitoring and applicant tracking. Founded in 1997, Global Recruiting Solutions currently has $710,000 in funding from the Global Investment Group and individual investors and is seeking an additional $4-$8 million.

Research Triangle-based Industrial Microwave Systems, Inc. develops industrial heating and drying systems utilizing patent pending microwave technology for continuous flow manufacturing processes. IMS brings the potential of microwave energy, most commonly used in residential microwave ovens, to fruition in industrial settings. Applications of this technology include paper making, chemical catalyzation, food and beverage sterilization, textile drying and sludge dewatering. IMS has received grants from the USDA and the EPA, as well as seed capital from the N.C. Technological Development Authority. The company is seeking $1.5 million.

Research Triangle-based iRenaissance, Inc., www.iRenaissance.com, is a software development company that creates web-based products to help companies and organizations communicate more effectively and efficiently. The company's flagship product, Calendar Central, uses advanced custom filtering to allow each group or individual who views an organization's web-based calendar to see a customized version. The product also allows information to be directly posted to a web calendar without using an intermediary webmaster. iRenaissance plans to develop newsletter, survey, member and email components to create a complete Community Central suite. Founded in 1997, iRenaissance is seeking $1 million.

Charlotte-based Mantha Software, Inc., www.manthasoft.com, develops, produces and markets software to run Java programs on embedded and real-time systems like mobile phones, automobiles or monitoring equipment. Mantha was established in 1990 in California, as a software development consulting firm, and in 1997 the company began leveraging its experience in embedded systems to move into the product manufacturing and sales market. Last year, Mantha released its first product, ExpresS-VM, a clean room implementation of the Java Virtual Machine specification, specifically designed for embedded systems. Mantha Software is seeking $1.2 million.

Research Triangle-based Mediappraise Corporation, www.mediappraise.com, combines web-technology and industrial psychology to address the ongoing assessment and development needs of its clients. The company, founded in 1997, offers a comprehensive, Internet-based Performance Management service that increases the efficiency and accuracy, and decreases the cost, of administering the performance management function within an organization through outsourcing. Surveys are conducted over the Internet, and the results are made available to the organization online.

Research Triangle-based Shadow Solutions, Inc., www.shadowsolutions.com, is an outsource call center for Internet Service Providers that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Shadow Solutions provides first and second level technical support for ISP customers via an 800 number, the Internet and a document fax-back service. Advanced computer telephony equipment allows call center technicians to identify who is calling and key information about that customer before answering the phone, thus providing for personalized customer service. Founded in 1997, the company is now the fourth-largest company of its kind in the U.S., providing support for more than 70 ISPs and representing more than 100,000 subscribers. Shadow Solutions is seeking $3.5 million.