Lightningcast Strengthens Its Position as the Undisputed Leader in the Streaming Media Market

ALEXANDRIA, VA - March 17, 2003 - Lightningcast (www.lightningcast.com), the leading provider of ad insertion technology and services to the Internet broadcast market, closed funding this week with existing investors Nokia Venture Partners, Redleaf Group and Birchmere Ventures. The company believes that this current round will adequately fund all of its future investment capital needs.

Tom Des Jardins, Founder, Chairman and CTO: "We are pleased with the continued support our investors have shown, despite these challenging market conditions. Completion of the fund raising efforts will allow the company to focus on expanding our leadership position in the market. One key factor in our success has been the increasing market adoption of broadband and the adoption of our technology by major media providers. We continue to see a growing audience of consumers, piquing the interest of the advertising community."

"We are delighted to part of Lightningcast's success. As the streaming media and advertising markets continue their rapid maturation process into becoming peers with traditional media outlets, we think Lightningcast is best positioned to take advantage of the opportunities ahead," said Jonathan Ebinger, Partner, Nokia Venture Partners.

Lloyd Mahaffey, Managing Partner, Redleaf Group, noted, "Lightningcast has made substantial market traction and produced steady positive results in an historically difficult time through their strong focus on operational performance. We're pleased to continue our long-standing support for the company."

Sean Sebastian of Birchmere Ventures added, "We have supported Lightningcast since the beginning because we believed in the business model and the technology. Lightningcast has continuously expanded their market and affiliate base by signing major media companies and delivering repeat ad campaigns. Birchmere is committed to offer continued support."

Lightningcast provides advertising technology and services to major media companies that deliver audio or video programming over the Internet. By providing advertising solutions that seamlessly insert ads into existing content while meeting the unique demands of radio, television and interactive broadcasters advertisers. Lightningcast enables its clients to focus on delivering online programming that is friendly to users and cost effective to advertisers.

Lightningcast also exposes the broadband segments of these media sites on a single advertising buy, increasing cross media campaign reach, frequency and overall effectiveness that optimize their media dollars using existing creative. This combination of content, audience and delivery allow Lightningcast affiliates using its service to obtain premium pricing for their programming and while exceeding advertiser delivery requirements. The Lightningcast network currently reaches a primarily broadband network estimated at over 20 million combined at home and at work audience members.

About Lightningcast Inc. Lightningcast is the world's leading online advertising delivery company that lets advertisers reach both dialup and broadband users by leveraging their existing radio and TV creative to extend the reach of their campaigns, target by demography, geography, dayparts or programming, follow the migration of the most desirable audience into a new medium and new locations and produce an efficient online campaign that reinforces the traditional buy. Major media companies and brand advertisers have already chosen Lightningcast as their preferred online content insertion company because it is the best technology two years running, it supports all major players and integrates easily into networks. Lightningcast is headquartered in northern Virginia and is a privately held corporation.

About Nokia Venture Partners Nokia Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. Backed by a number of value add limited partners, the fund leads investments in early stage mobile technology companies around the world. Launched in 1998, Nokia Venture Partners has a strong track record of leveraging its combined resources, experience and contacts to help build successful mobile businesses. The firm also has offices in Washington DC, London, Helsinki, Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo. For more information, visit http://www.nokiaventurepartners.com.

About Redleaf Group Redleaf Group is a technology operating company that leverages a powerful, digital GRID (Global Resource for Internet Development) to provide services and capital for seed stage Internet technology companies and communities. Redleaf provides its partner companies with market access, strategic counsel, and operational support from a team of seasoned professional managers whose specialties include finance, engineering, product development, systems integration, marketing and human capital management. These capabilities are offered today to partner companies through Redleaf Group's GRID in offices throughout the United States, Europe and soon in Asia. Established in December 1999, Redleaf's strategic investors include Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE), Novell (Nasdaq:NOVL), VentureBank@PNC, Mellon Ventures, Inc., and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP). www.redleaf.com

About Birchmere Ventures Birchmere Ventures (www.birchmerevc.com) is a leading mid-Atlantic region early-stage venture capital fund focused on technology and life sciences investments. Since 1996 Birchmere has invested in 22 companies, including FreeMarkets (Nasdaq: FMKT), ServiceWare (Nasdaq: SVCW), Mediasite (Nasdaq: SOFO), CoManage, Cvent, Entigo, Optinel Systems, LogicLibrary, Precision Therapeutics, TissueInformatics, and Neolinear. Birchmere is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and has over $115 million under management.