WidgetBucks Secures $10 Million to Expand Internet's Fastest Growing Ad Network
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SEATTLE, WA, Jun 12 (MARKET WIRE) --
WidgetBucks, the market leading ad network of retail and shopping widgets
for online publishers, today announced it has secured $10 million in Series B
funding led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, one of the world's premier venture
capital firms. Ignition Partners, which supplied the company's original
venture backing, also participated in the financing. The new round enables
WidgetBucks -- which has gone from launch to five billion ad impressions in its
first eight months -- to develop three strategic areas: technology to further
optimize publisher earnings, global expansion to diversify publisher revenue,
and
team development to extend the company's engineering, sales and marketing
efforts.
In May 2008, 100 million unique visitors saw a WidgetBucks ad widget
servedacross the sites and blogs of more than 20,000 publishers. Seattle-based
WidgetBucks
is ranked No. 2 among niche ad networks and among the top 30 ad networks
(comScore Ad Network report, April 2008).
Through the investment, Bill Bryant, DFJ partner and startup veteran, joins
the Board of Directors of Mpire -- WidgetBucks' parent company -- while DFJ
Director Emily Melton joins as a Board observer. WidgetBucks is DFJ's first
investment since Bryant joined as venture partner in late 2007 to focus on
expanding DFJ's presence in the Seattle-area startup market.
"The investment decision was simple," said Bryant. "DFJ invests in companies
that are bringing disruptive technology to major sectors of the Internet
economy. We love what WidgetBucks has built around its ecommerce platform.
While
the recent growth has been phenomenal, what we invested in is the promise to
truly transform performance-based advertising for publishers."
"We are thrilled to welcome Draper Fisher Jurvetson alongside our original
partner, Ignition Partners, to the WidgetBucks family," said Matt Hulett, CEO
and Chairman of Mpire and WidgetBucks. "Today, WidgetBucks is a contextual
shopping-focused ad network that has truly taken off in terms of impressions
and publisher adoption. Tomorrow, through this new investment and investment
partner, our vision as an ad network dramatically broadens to include virtually
any
type of monetization model that self-tunes and optimizes yield for our
publishers."
About Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson ("DFJ") backs extraordinary entrepreneurs anywhere
who set
out to change the world. DFJ achieves its mission through its DFJ Global
Network of Partner Funds managing over $6B in more than 30 cities worldwide.
Over the past twenty years, DFJ has backed over 500 companies across many
sectors
including such industry changing catalysts as Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu
(BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), United Online (UNTD), Overture (acquired by
YHOO), Athenahealth (ATHN), EnerNOC (ENOC), Interwoven (IWOV), Four11 (acquired
by YHOO), Parametric (PMTC), and Digidesign (acquired by AVID).
About Ignition Partners
Ignition Partners is a premier private investment group with offices in
Bellevue, Wash., and Shanghai, China. Ignition Partners' affiliated
familyof funds includes Ignition Ventures and Ignition Growth Capital in the
U.S.and Qiming Ventures in China. The investment group's three categories of
funds -- early stage venture, growth capital and China ventures -- brings
together an unparalleled combination of domain focus, functional expertise and
global operational experience with partners from leadership positions at
Microsoft,
McCaw Cellular Communications, AT&T Wireless, Cisco, Starbucks and other
industry leaders.
About WidgetBucks
WidgetBucks is the market leading ad network of retail and shopping widgets
for online publishers. The parent company of WidgetBucks is Mpire Corporation,
whose shopping trend expertise, market data relationships and proprietary
technology serve as the backbone for the network. Founded in 2005, Mpire
and WidgetBucks are backed by Ignition Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
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Media Contact
Dean Jutilla
Marketing Director
WidgetBucks
Email: Email Contact
Phone: (650) 814-3854
Copyright 2008, Market Wire, All rights reserved.
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