Chemunity - Pragmatic Procurement of Chemicals

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	Radical departure forecast Arnhem, The Netherlands, January 2001 AMR Research says this year will mark a 'radical departure from the excesses of 2000 in the trading exchange industry'. In a recent report, AMR predicts that 70% of venture-capital-backed Application Service Providers will fail this year 'because of flawed business strategies and impatient investors pulling the purse strings tight'. But many chemical industry sites seem to have dodged the current downturn in investor confidence seen in business-to-consumer companies. ChemUnity started the new year with a boost, securing E8m ($7.6m) of funding from the UK's 3i. Herman Rijks, ChemUnity's chief executive officer, said: 'Despite the current difficult times for dotcoms, we just closed our second financing round, which should take us all the way to early 2002.' This quarter the site will concentrate on revamping its software to provide complete e-procurement functionality. ChemConnect claimed to have had a 'blockbuster year', tripling its membership and seeing significant increases in transaction volumes, and partnerships particularly, in quarter four, when investor confidence hit rock bottom. 'The company is one of a few to survive the 2000 "bloodbath" that saw the demise of many independent exchanges,' it said. Bluegate posted an operating income of E6.4m for 2000, nearly E1m higher than it predicted last September. The firm said it was approaching break-even point in terms of operating cash flow, with EBITDA up 26% on last year at -E993 000. Bluegate expects to start up its first client projects on its ChemVLP platform within the next few months. But the year has not had a happy ending for all. CheMatch put its initial public offering (IPO) on hold and ChemConnect dropped its IPO, awaiting an improvement in the stock markets. The year also marked the disappearance of ShipDesk and Ventro's Chemdex and Promedix (ECN 18 December 2000) and saw e-chemicals radically alter its strategy. Source: European Chemical News. 15-21 January 2001