FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Technology Venture Partners and Transcosmos join existing investors in financing to accelerate global sales and marketing efforts
SAN FRANCISCO (March 13, 2007) – Eurekster, Inc., a pioneer and leader in community-driven, social search has secured $5.5 million in a Series B financing.
Eurekster’s first institutional financing was led by Technology Venture Partners (TVP) of Australia and Transcosmos Investments of Japan with the participation of the private investors who provided the company’s initial Series A financing. The proceeds will enable Eurekster to accelerate the company’s rapid growth and expand the commercial and global scope of its product offering.
“Eurekster has demonstrated tremendous vision for the future of Internet search with its Swicki platform, organically growing its Swicki network to over 18,000 publishers and 50,000 Swickis worldwide, predominantly through word of mouth and organic growth,” said Michael Zimmerman, Principal at TVP. “With this round of financing, Eurekster will be able to expand its sales and marketing efforts to include increased emphasis on small to medium publishers, offering substantial growth potential for the company and compelling advertising opportunities for marketers seeking to reach highly targeted consumers.”
Eurekster revolutionized search with the introduction of the Swicki (www.swicki.com) and the BuzzCloud™, the new generation of social search engine, empowering website publishers with a sophisticated tool for not only guiding the specialized search experience for their unique communities but also driving user engagement and community contribution. Websites that cultivate brand and visitor loyalty by increasing participation among users have tremendous appeal to advertisers. The success of Swickis on thousands of sites including Forbes.com, TechCrunch and PopSci.com, which are among the most prominent sites employing Eurekster community-driven search, is proof that users, advertisers and publishers worldwide benefit from Eurekster's customized, social search.
"Eurekster's relationship with our partner Ask.com in the United States, united with Transcosmos' heritage and presence in the Asian markets represents a synergy that positions the company to extend into the Japanese and Asian markets and beyond," said Shinichi Nakagura, Executive Vice President at Transcosmos Investments. "Eurekster brings to people around the world search results that go beyond algorithms, infusing the wisdom of real communities into search that truly delivers on the promise of the participatory Web."
"Not only are we thrilled with global investors TVP and Transcosmos joining the Eurekster family but this transaction marks the next phase of accelerating our leadership in the social search and vertical search areas," said Eurekster co-founder and CEO Steven Marder. "With their support, we will more aggressively deliver on our vision for social search driving brand reinforcement, user engagement and improved targeting all to the benefit of web publishers, end users and advertisers."
About Eurekster, Inc.
Eurekster, Inc. (www.eurekster.com) is a pioneer and leader in community search technologies that harness the knowledge and behavior of online communities to increase search relevance and value for site visitors, site publishers and advertisers. Eurekster's Swicki platform (www.swicki.com) uses patented technology and patent-pending processes to leverage web search to create growing and dynamic social networks and communities of interest. Swicki gives web publishers the ability to create their own search engines and BuzzClouds™ that enable community engagement while driving better user experiences, page views and revenue. Eurekster, Inc. is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco, California. Its research and development group is based in Christchurch, New Zealand.
About Technology Venture Partners
Technology Venture Partners (TVP) is one of Australia's leading venture capital firms with $190 million under management. Formed in 1997, TVP provides venture capital for Australian technology companies with international market opportunity in the information, communications and new media sectors. TVP invests predominantly in early and expansion stage companies, and has invested in 23 companies to date. TVP has a team of 3 investment professionals based in Sydney, Australia with extensive experience of investing in and developing technology businesses in Asia, USA and Europe. For more information, please visit: www.tvp.com.au
About Transcosmos Investments & Business Development, Inc.
Transcosmos Investments & Business Development, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transcosmos, Inc. With offices in Bellevue, Wash., and Mountain View, Calif., Transcosmos Investments & Business Development is a strategic corporate investor and an active local business partner for Internet-based U.S. technology companies expanding into the Japanese marketplace. It is the international partner-of-choice, offering capitalization of joint ventures, infrastructure development, strategic relationships, staffing and localization to companies in the U.S. technology sector -- effectively creating a pipeline of technological information to Japan. Transcosmos Investments' portfolios, which focus on companies specializing in digital marketing, e-commerce and digital media, include such marquee brand names as AskJeeves, Inc., DoubleClick Inc., RealNetworks Inc., NetRatings Inc., Atom Shockwave, Inc., Become Inc. and CinemaNow, Inc. For more information, please visit: http://www.transcosmos.com
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