BC Advantage Funds Raises $6 Million in Five Weeks

Vancouver, January 8, 2004 - BC Advantage Funds (VCC) LTD. received a receipt for its prospectus and began selling through FundSERV on November 27, 2003. On the first day, Advantage received over $2.1 million in subscriptions. Over the last five weeks of 2003, Advantage surpassed $6 million in sales.

The BC Government allocated tax credits to BC Advantage Funds to raise $10 million prior to February 29, 2004, an additional $15 million prior to February 28, 2005 and an additional $20 million prior to February 28, 2006. This is the largest aggregate tax credit allocation granted by the Government to date under the VCC program.

“We expected to receive most of the Advantage subscriptions during the traditional February RRSP tax season. Our team was pleasantly surprised at the strong early uptake of our offering.” said Dr. Basil Peters, CEO of Advantage. We now anticipate that Advantage will surpass its initial $10 million allocation well before the end of February. We are recommending that any investment advisors or investors who have not yet received a specific allocation, contact Vice-President Sales and Marketing, Ray Matthews (ray@bcadvantagefunds.com or 604.818.7778) as soon as possible.”

Jim Heppell, President of Advantage, noted that "Significant improvements made by the BC Government to the Small Business Venture Capital Act in the Spring of 2003 now allow investors to apply their tax credits in 2003 for investments in Advantage made in January or February of 2004, and to invest in Advantage directly from their RRSP or RRIF and still receive their tax credits personally."

Jim further noted that "The BC Government provides Advantage investors with a 30% refundable tax credit on investments of up to $200,000 per year (maximum $60,000 annual tax credit). If an investor does not owe any taxes, the investor will receive a cheque from the BC Government for the full amount of the tax credit. BC corporations investing in Advantage will receive a 30% tax credit against taxes payable, which may be carried forward for five years."

For more information, please visit our website or click here to access our one page introductory brochure.

About Advantage

Advantage is an early-stage life sciences and technology fund that offers anyone in BC the opportunity to participate in returns from some of our Province's most promising young technology and life science companies and to receive a 30% refundable tax credit from the BC Government. Advantage was co-founded by Dr. Don Rix, Chairman of the Board; Frank Holler, CEO and Chairman of the Investment Committee; Jim Heppell, President and Life Sciences Fund Manager; Dr. Basil Peters, Technology Fund Manager; and David Raffa, COO and Investment Manager.

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