Further Investments

NewMedia SPARK PLC
28 March 2000

   NewMedia SPARK invests further £400,000 in Skillvest.com
              as part of £8 million funding round
   to take pioneering B2B on-line training marketplace into
                            Europe

NewMedia Spark plc ('SPARK') announces that it has invested  a
further £400,000 in Skillvest.com,, the company which recently
launched the UK's premier, all-inclusive, online training  and
development service. SPARK's first investment in Skillvest.com
was  announced  on  3rd December when it took  an  initial  5%
equity stake.

This  second round funding  raised a total of £8 million  from
leading  e-business  investors  including  New  Media   Spark,
Carlyle Internet Partners Europe and AMP Private Capital.  The
extremely high level of interest in the deal meant a number of
investors  could not be included, underlining the  quality  of
the  business  model and management team behind Skillvest.com.
The  funding will support Skillvest.com's plans to enhance the
functionality  of  the  UK website and  launch  into  the  £60
billion European market.

The  site  provides  real business solutions  effectively  and
efficiently  to both suppliers and customers.  For corporates,
Skillvest.com  offers  a marketplace and sophisticated  search
engine  for  the online purchase of all types of training  and
development.  But Skillvest.com's real differentiator  is  the
web-enabled tools which streamline training and development by
taking  care of the more administration oriented requirements.
For  suppliers,  Skillvest.com opens  an  effective  marketing
channel, which cuts costs and enables them to target the right
audience.   Through ongoing customer feedback,  customers  can
help  each other to identify high quality suppliers  with  the
aim of providing a real centre of excellence for the industry.
Human   resources  professionals  can  browse,  evaluate   and
purchase services, request further information on courses  and
even blind tender for customised training programmes.

Skillvest.com  has  won  the  endorsement  of  major  clients,
leading  suppliers  and  an excellent group  of  cutting  edge
internet investors, all of whom recognise the quality  of  its
business solution.

Commenting  on the announcement, Jay Patel, of NewMedia  SPARK
said:

'We  have invested further funds in Skillvest.com because  Jac
Peeris  and  her team have continued to impress us with  their
professionalism  and  development  of  an  outstanding   value
proposition.  We  believe skills training is  an  increasingly
important  issue for the business world and the  Skillvest.com
solution is a win-win for the users and suppliers of training.
The  set  of  tools and functionality that has been  developed
allows corporates to more easily and productively manage their
training needs and we hope the funds raised will help the team
get the Skillvest.com message to a wider audience '.

Jac Peeris, founder and CEO of Skillvest.com, commented:

'This investment round is recognition that online marketplaces
like  ours are very much the way of the future in B2B trading,
and  that Skillvest.com has identified a major gap in  the  UK
training and development market.  We are now concentrating  on
rolling  the service out to the European market,  to  offer  a
truly pan-European proposition to our clients.'

SPARK  has made 24 investments since its shares began  trading
on the Alternative Investment Market on 28th October 1999.


For further information, please contact:

NewMedia Spark
Jay Patel/Andrew Carrutthers            Tel No: 0207 851 7777
Buchanan Communications
Lisa Baderoon                           Tel No: 0207 466 5000

Skillvest.com : www.skillvest.com

Notes to Editors


Skillvest.com
Skillvest.com   provides   a  business-2-business   e-commerce
market-place'  that  brings together buyers  and  sellers  of
training  products  and services.  The unique  combination  of
tools  and  services offered alongside this market-place'  is
revolutionising professional training and development and  the
European HR industry.  Skillvest.com's co-ordinated one-stop-
shop' is indicative of the b2b internet companies that are re-
shaping the industries they serve.   Skillvest.com was founded
by  Jacintha Peeris, formerly a manager at Bain and  Co.   She
identified  ongoing training and development as  a  remarkably
under-resourced and fragmented aspect of many businesses,  and
saw the opportunity to fill a gap in the market by offering HR
managers efficient and informative access to a marketplace and
set  of tools that would help them manage their business  more
effectively.

Carlyle  Internet  Partners  Europe  provides  pre-floatation,
equity  capital  to  European internet and  other  information
technology  and new media companies. It focuses on  investment
opportunities  across  all areas of the internet  value  chain
including  network infrastructure e-commerce and b2b  focussed
companies.   The   fund  expects  to  invest  principally   in
businesses  that  are based or are pursuing operations  within
Europe.

AMP  Private  Capital  is a wholly owned subsidiary  of  AMP's
global  investment  management business,  which  includes  the
operations  of  Henderson Investors and AMP Asset  Management.
AMP  Private Capital has over US$ 3billion invested  worldwide
in  the  telecoms,  e-commerce,  infrastructure  and  mid  cap
private equity sectors.

Skillvest.com is a bainlab-sponsored company.  bainlab is  the
Internet investment arm of Bain & Company, one of the  leading
global  strategy  consulting firms. bainlab's  mission  is  to
create  Internet success stories in Europe by drawing  on  the
global  resources of both their Internet investment  team  and
the contacts and expertise of Bain & Company.