August 5, 2008

weplay Closes $8.6 Million Series B Financing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 Contact: Chris Macowski/ Justine Sacco The Morris + King Company 

 212-561-7459 / 212-561-7467

chris.macowski@morris-king.com 

justine.sacco@morris-king.com

Weplay Closes $8.6 Million Series B Financing

Deep Fork Capital Leads Round with Participation from FirstMark Capital, Derek Jeter, LeBron James, Peyton Manning and Senior Management 

New York, NY & Los Angeles, CA – August 5, 2008 – Weplay (www.weplay.com), the premier online youth sports community uniting kids, parents, coaches and professional athletes, today announced the closing of an $8.6 million round of Series B financing.  Deep Fork Capital led the investment with participation from existing investors FirstMark Capital, weplay senior executives and professional athletes, Derek Jeter, LeBron James and Peyton Manning.  The funding will accelerate the company’s momentum as the fastest-growing online youth sports destination. "We are thrilled to have Deep Fork Capital join our existing partners Creative Artists Agency, Major League Baseball Advanced Media and FirstMark Capital. Youth sports are currently facilitated by email, clip boards and isolated telephone calls. Weplay is fundamentally changing and enhancing the youth sports community by leveraging technology to make it easier for kids, coaches and families to communicate more effectively, and as a result, get more involved in sports.  As a parent of a youth athlete, I want to make that experience simpler, safer and more fun for millions of other parents, kids and coaches,” said Steve Hansen, CEO of weplay.  “Our mission, quite simply, is to enhance the youth sports experience and facilitate participation in this important community event.” “Weplay has established itself as the safe, fun and engaging place for kids and their families to share sports-related experiences,” said Rick Heitzmann, Managing Director at FirstMark Capital and Chairman of weplay’s Board of Directors.  “54 million kids participate in youth sports each year in the US alone.  If you include the coaches, family, friends and teammates – youth sports touches 240 million Americans.  We firmly believe that weplay will continue its emergence as the cutting-edge technology platform uniting the millions of people involved in or touched by youth sports.” 

Weplay’s Series B financing follows a series of key milestones: 

·         Weplay commenced public Beta in March 2008.

·         Weplay announced Series A funding of $4.4 million in early 2008, led by FirstMark Capital, with participation from weplay pro athletes and senior management, as well as prominent angel investor Ron Conway.

·         Weplay announced a partnership with Pop Warner Football and Cheer, the nation’s largest and oldest youth football organization, in July 2008.

·         Weplay announced the “Meet Derek Jeter” nationwide sweepstakes, in which users are given a chance to win a 3-day/2-night trip to a 2008 New York Yankees regular season home game and meet All-Star shortstop and weplay founding partner, Derek Jeter.  The sweepstakes is running now through August 14, 2008. 

 About Weplay

Weplay is an online youth sports community that provides a safe place for kids, parents, coaches and organizers involved with youth sports to connect, create, share and stay organized.  Using the latest multimedia technology, users can create profiles, blogs and fan clubs, play games, “friend” pros like LeBron James, Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning, and connect with teammates. In addition, parents and coaches can use weplay to organize their schedules, share pictures and videos, and communicate information such as practice dates and changes more effectively.  Weplay is fully customizable to the needs of each member and encourages children online to act and achieve offline.Weplay is backed by CAA Sports, a division of Creative Artists Agency, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, FirstMark Capital and iconic athletes Derek Jeter, LeBron James, Peyton Manning, Tony Parker, Shaun Alexander, Ryan Howard, Jennie Finch, Brandi Chastain, Summer Sanders and Sheryl Swoopes.  Visit us at www.weplay.com

About Deep Fork Capital

Deep Fork Capital, with offices in Menlo Park and Oklahoma City, was founded in 2007 by Managing Partners Aubrey K. McClendon, Andre de Baubigny and Timothy Komada.  Deep Fork provides venture capital to best-in-class consumer technology, Internet, digital media and cleantech companies.  For more information, contact info@deepforkcapital.com.

About FirstMark Capital

Based in New York City, FirstMark Capital (formerly Pequot Ventures) has established itself as a venture leader with a strong, international reach over its twelve year history.  FirstMark invests in companies that are creating new markets with innovative technology solutions or rethinking existing markets by applying a novel business model.  With nearly $2 billion in capital commitments, FirstMark’s team of investment and operations professionals have decades of entrepreneurial experience and leadership in core technology markets, making the firm uniquely qualified to offer industry insight, relationships and the operational expertise to build lasting businesses.  Select historical investments include: Netgear, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR); First Advantage Corp. (NASDAQ: FADV); StubHub, Inc (Acquired by eBay, Inc.); Netegrity, Inc. (Acquired by CA Inc); Flarion, Inc. (Acquired by Qualcomm, Inc.); OutlookSoft Inc. (Acquired by SAP AG);  Analex Corp. (Acquired by QinetiQ); Vallent (Acquired by IBM); Syndesis (Acquired by Subex) and Navic (Acquired by Microsoft).  For more information, please visit www.firstmarkcap.com.

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