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Mangrove Capital Partners and Index Ventures Re-Join Forces to Fund Peer-to-Peer Firefox Extension AllPeers

Posted on: Tuesday, 7 March 2006, 09:01 CST

OXFORD, England, March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- AllPeers Ltd, a software vendor specializing in private media sharing networks, today announced that it has secured Series A funding from two leading European venture capital firms, Mangrove Capital Partners and Index Ventures.

"We are delighted to be joining forces with Mangrove and Index, both of which are proven investors who have recognized the potential of our software to simplify and streamline the way people exchange data with their friends and family. We're excited to be working with firms that have a joint history of backing successful companies such as Skype and Securewave," explained Cedric Maloux, CEO and co-founder of AllPeers.

AllPeers plans to use the Series A investment funding to help finance ongoing development activities and future product launches and to actively recruit developers to work at their Prague software development center.

Serving as an extension to Firefox, the Mozilla Foundation's hugely popular web browser, AllPeers has attracted considerable attention from Firefox users excited about being able to share media directly inside their browser. Private beta testing of the product is due to start in late March, and to date, over 35,000 people have already signed up to participate in the initial beta phase.

AllPeers uses peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies to enable its unique "Drag- and-Share" functionality which makes sharing videos, photos, podcasts and web pages as easy as dragging and dropping files from one folder to another.

Mark Tluszcz, managing partner of Mangrove, said that he was immediately struck by the similarities between AllPeers and Skype at the time of their initial investment. "Both companies have looked beyond the misleading stigma attached to P2P to find new, innovative and highly appealing ways to help people share and communicate."

Adds Neil Rimer, general partner at Index, "We think AllPeers has true viral potential because it allows people to share any type of media privately with their friends and this is something people already do a lot using other less intuitive methods."

Mr. Maloux said, "Currently people use websites, email or instant messaging to share photos, videos and other personal media, but all of these have serious drawbacks. Our Drag-and-Share is a much more powerful, convenient and intuitive way to exchange files with friends and family."

About AllPeers

AllPeers is the easiest way for people to share photos, videos, podcasts, websites and other information with friends and family, thanks to its unique "Drag-and-Share" functionality. It uses peer-to-peer technology to enable users to share exactly what they want with exactly who they want, without the time-consuming process of uploading files to a website or server. A privately held company, AllPeers has its headquarters in Oxford, United Kingdom and a software development centre located in Prague, Czech Republic. More information can be found on AllPeers website (http://www.allpeers.com/) and on "Peer Pressure," the AllPeers's blog (http://www.allpeers.com/blog).

About Mangrove Capital Partners

Mangrove Capital Partners is committed to turn entrepreneurial visions into realities as a means to drive capital appreciation for investors. Our hands-on philosophy in all areas of business and technological development is the cornerstone of our investment strategy and positions us as a true partner for growth. Mangrove Capital Partners has invested in, among others, the following companies: Skype (http://www.skype.com/), Securewave (http://www.securewave.com/), Dialcom Networks (http://www.dialcom.com/), Paseosoft (http://www.paseosoft.com/), Sapiens Tech (http://www.sapienstech.com/), AllPeers (http://www.allpeers.com/), Nimbuzz (in stealth mode).

About Index Ventures

Index Ventures is a leading European venture capital firm active in technology venture investing since 1996. The firm is dedicated to helping top entrepreneurial teams both in the Information Technology and Life Science sectors build their companies into market defining global leaders. The firm has offices in Geneva, London and Jersey and focuses its investment activity primarily on Europe and Israel. Investments include Betfair (the world's largest betting exchange); Skype (the pioneering communications company, recently acquired by eBay); MySQL (the world's most popular open source database); Photoways (Europe's largest online photo-processing service) FON (the global wifi network) and VideoIsland (Europe's largest DVD rental business).

Index Ventures

CONTACT: Sayula Kirby of Index Ventures, +44 7917 207 297, orsayula@indexventures.com; or Diane Schrieber of Spark PR, +1-415-321-1871, ordiane@sparkpr.com, for Index Ventures; or Cedric Maloux of AllPeers,+420 731 476 550, cedric@allpeers.com

Web site: http://www.indexventures.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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