Mentor Media Group Raises $4.5 Million in Financing from Allegra Partners

Proceeds to fund expansion into Retail, eCommerce, and OEM alliance partnerships

Norwalk, CT, November 19, 2001 — Mentor Media Group (www.trymentor.com), the developer of the Mentor™ line of communications, learning and support applications currently used by more than six million individuals in corporations worldwide, today announced it has raised $4.5 million in equity financing, led by Allegra Partners. A New York-based venture capital fund, Allegra Partners focuses on expansion funding of technology companies with market-proven products or services that have strong management teams, unique strategies and well-defined target markets.

Proceeds from the investment will fund a three-tiered expansion strategy, including launching the full line of Mentor products into the retail channel. During the past three months, Mentor has struck distribution agreements with some of the world's largest retailers including CompUSA, Amazon.com, Micro Center, J & R Computer World, Circuit City, and others.

The equity infusion also financed the launch of the company's eCommerce initiative, www.theMentorShop.com, where online customers can purchase the full line of Mentor products, as well as for an aggressive OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) alliance partner business development initiative.

"Our investment interest was based on Mentor's position as a proven product with substantial growth potential," says Rick Defieux, General Partner, Allegra. "In addition, Mentor's management team, led by founder Dan Gallo, has proven itself to be adept at developing and marketing solutions that address real market needs."

The industry-leading content developer in multimedia communications, learning and support applications, Mentor Media Group has grown more than 400% in the past two years while maintaining strong profitability. The company has sold more than six million licenses of Mentor products to Fortune 100 companies worldwide, including IBM, GE Capital, DuPont, Verizon and DaimlerChrysler.

"Our new partnership with Allegra enables us to execute on our overall business strategy," says Mentor founder Dan Gallo. "Our new retail business will help drive brand awareness, supporting our B2B reseller channels and eCommerce offerings. In turn, this increased awareness should help us attract new B2B resellers and accelerate new OEM alliance partner initiatives, which in the end creates greater opportunity for our retail and B2B partners. All of these initiatives and goals are now within closer reach thanks to our partnership with Allegra".

Mentor's line of products includes Mentor™ for Lotus Notes, Mentor™ for Lotus Sametime and Mentor™ for Lotus QuickPlace. Additionally, the company offers Mentor™ for Windows XP, released simultaneous to Microsoft's launch of Windows XP, and is the first full support tool on the market for this highly anticipated product. The company also offers both business and retail versions of Mentor product suites including Mentor™ for the Internet, Mentor™ for Office 2000, Mentor™ for Windows 2000, Mentor™ for Windows Me™, and Mentor™ for Office XP.

Mentor is comprised of short, just-in-time multimedia demonstrations designed to answer questions on how to perform functions in the various applications. Mentor's easy to understand support has already cut training and support costs for its business-to-business Fortune 100 clients, and in the consumer arena will be invaluable to PC users and small businesses, few of whom have access to help desks or support departments.

"The Mentor product line delivers a documented, measurable impact on business productivity, and the company has shown it can be profitable," says Defieux of Allegra Partners. "Most of its prior success has been with one product sold through one channel. This funding will support the launch of new products and the development of new channels and partnerships."

About Mentor Media Group

Mentor Media Group is a leading business communications company offering custom and off-the-shelf e-learning products. With over six million user licenses sold, its flagship solution, Mentor™ helps companies get more out of their new technology by making users successful as soon as the systems are deployed. Now available to individual users as well as businesses, a Mentor can be added to any software to motivate and instruct users and give them instant, multimedia demonstrations of how to perform its functions. Mentors are appropriate for a wide range of products and services offered by software developers, hardware manufactures, Internet Service Providers, device manufacturers, and developers of e-Business systems or exchanges.

Mentor delivers just-in-time, sight-and-sound multimedia Communication, Learning, and Support via local networks, CDs, local hard drives, or streamed over the Internet. Mentors are available in multiple languages for Lotus products such as Notes, Sametime, QuickPlace, and TeamRoom; for popular Microsoft products such as Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Outlook 2000, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer; as well as for Netscape Navigator and custom applications. Mentor has become a learning standard at Fortune 500 companies like IBM, DuPont, Verizon, DaimlerChrysler, GE Capital, Duke Energy, Colgate-Palmolive, and many smaller companies. Mentor can be experienced online at

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