New features delivered with Version 2.0 include expanded international coverage, enhanced portfolio reporting tools, internal idea tracking, exportable raw data capability, and integrated corporate meeting management functionality. First Coverage, who just last week announced they had successfully raised US $9M in Series B financing, will unveil Version 2.0 at this week's SIFMA Technology Management Conference in New York City.

"The take-up of our platform has been phenomenal so far, and we expect Version 2.0 to drive that even further," said Randy Cass, CEO of First Coverage, Inc. "Nobody in our industry ever wants to overlook information or people that might be able to help their performance and First Coverage allows users to prevent those opportunities from slipping through the cracks."

The First Coverage platform allows portfolio managers to efficiently manage, aggregate and evaluate all trade ideas, information and other sell-side services they receive. This enables them to identify the people and data that will add the most value to their investment strategies and creates greater transparency in the commission allocation process. For the sell side, First Coverage provides a method for efficiently reaching a wider audience and a new objective means of clearly demonstrating the value they are delivering. More than 300 firms globally are using First Coverage to send and receive sell-side services including information, ideas and meeting opportunities.

First Coverage 2.0 offers an enhanced and more tightly-integrated feature set, providing users with the most complete and total evaluation tool for sell-side coverage on the market today. New features include:

Expanded International Coverage - First Coverage's integration with all global exchanges allows portfolio managers to now monitor and evaluate information provided by the sell side related to securities anywhere in the woorld.

Enhanced Portfolio Reporting Tools - Portfolio managers using First Coverage are able to evaluate their coverage either on a per-idea or portfolio-wide basis. New features include daily net asset value (NAV) calculations, displays of actual holdings and the ability to size positions based on conviction levels.

Internal Idea Tracking - Firms can now use First Coverage to better track and manage ideas and information created within their organization. This functionality enables buy-side professionals to more seamlessly exchange and evaluate internal information and subsequent performance without having to allocate capital.

Corporate Meeting Management Functionality - Corporate meetings, access to analysts, and conferences offered by the sell side can now be organized, sorted and evaluated within First Coverage by industry-specific parameters (ticker, sector, attendance, meeting type, etc.). This feature allows the buy side to use First Coverage as a unified platform to track and evaluate the entire breadth of their sell-side coverage, creating a complete picture of each firm's value.

Exportable Raw Data - Buy-side firms looking to build their own internal databases of sell-side information can now more easily export raw data from First Coverage already tagged with dozens of variables. This allows quantitative firms to utilize First Coverage data in trading algorithms, either real-time or via end-of-day summary files. The ability to now upload massive amounts of structured sell-side data into algorithmic trading models is a global first and represents entire new data streams that buy-side firms can begin to utilize.

With its first production client going live in early 2007, First Coverage's user base has grown to more than 300 firms worldwide in just over a year. Earlier this month, First Coverage announced that it had secured US $9 million in a second round of funding from a cross-border syndicate of venture capital investors led by Boston-based Commonwealth Capital Ventures.