softbank staying very busy...now this is the sector i wouild like to see softbank take more stakes in!...when this company goes public, it will be huge.
Business-To-Business Web and E-Commerce Services Company
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- SmartAge.com, the first, largest and fastest-growing business-to-business e-commerce and web services provider for small businesses, announced today that it is receiving a $39 million dollar investment from SOFTBANK Capital Partners, a newly formed $1.25 billion dollar late stage and public markets investment fund led by global Internet leader SOFTBANK Corp.
SOFTBANK Corp.'s investment represents a clear vote of confidence in SmartAge.com's position as leader of the small business-to-business space. SmartAge.com will use the funds to cement its leadership in helping small businesses find customers and succeed online, and to build its brand, and develop its infrastructure. Targeted expansion includes US-focused markets as well as three core joint ventures in Japan, England, and France.
Founded in January 1998, SmartAge.com offers small and growing businesses over 20 services to help them attract customers and make money on the Web.
Currently a community of over 700,000 businesses, SmartAge.com is growing at over 3,000 businesses a day. One of its most popular services, SmartClicks*, a free banner advertising exchange program, is offered through over 30 partners, including Excite, Go/Infoseek, Tripod, Angelfire, theglobe, LookSmart and ZDNet. "Helping small businesses succeed online is a great market opportunity, and clearly SmartAge.com is in the leading position to be the market winner," said Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of SOFTBANK Corp. "We will help SmartAge.com reach out to small and growing businesses in the U.S. and around the world. Bill Lohse was one of my American CEOs when we started SOFTBANK Corp.'s efforts in the U.S in 1994. I believe that given the combination of the small business market and SmartAge's management team, this is one of the most exciting investments we've made to date."
Bud Colligan of Accel Partners, a Board member at SmartAge.com, said, "We bet early on SmartAge because it was a foundation player in what has become a huge market, and because of its management team. SOFTBANK Corp. will accelerate our international growth. This is a wonderful partner for SmartAge." "I've been tracking SmartAge's growth closely for over a year now and have wanted to invest since my first meeting with the company," said Bill Burnham, General Partner at SOFTBANK Capital Partners. The noted industry analyst and new Board member of SmartAge.com added that "Now that I'm on the buyside, I'm very happy to get both the opportunity to invest and to be a part of SmartAge.com. With its huge customer base and incredible growth, SmartAge is well on its way to becoming the dominant provider of business-to-business e-commerce and web services to small businesses."
Roger McNamee, general partner of Integral Capital, noted that "when the stars line up, people make magic. Business-to-Businesses for small business will generate tens of billions of dollars in value. SmartAge is ideally positioned to dominate this market opportunity. The addition of SOFTBANK Corp. to the investor team will allow SmartAge to pursue this space on a global basis." "I make very selective investments, the truth be told," said Vint Cerf, co-author of the TCP/IP protocols which underlie the Internet and the Web. "I invested in SmartAge when Bill Lohse suggested it, at the beginning of the company. Softbank has been very successful in the Internet space, and I'm sure their involvement will help SmartAge.com serve customers around the world." "I'm honored to get to work with Masa Son, Ron Fisher, Bill Burnham and Charlie Lax again," said Bill Lohse, SmartAge.com founder and CEO. "I know what the SOFTBANK Corp. team can do. The network of relationships with other SOFTBANK Corp. investments, the brilliance of the partners and their track record of success ... I know I speak for John Thomsen, the creator of SmartClicks*, when I say how happy we are to have SOFTBANK Corp. on our side. Together, we at SmartAge and SOFTBANK Corp. are hot wiring small businesses to compete more effectively with their larger competitors, and usher in an era of meritocracy around the world. It all starts with finding customers and serving them. We've been blessed with the faith and trust of almost a million SmartAge members. With SOFTBANK Corp.'s help, we'll be much more useful to our members in America and around the world."
SOFTBANK Corp. has emerged as one of the world's leading Internet market forces. Through its ownership positions in more than 100 Internet companies and its unique Internet-keiretsu management concept, it is able to create market synergy's for its family of companies on a global scale. In Japan its activities encompass distribution, publishing, Internet media platforms, a broad range of e-commerce businesses, and joint ventures with companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo!, Nasdaq, and many other market leaders. In the U.S. SOFTBANK Corp. is the largest shareholder in leading Internet companies such as Yahoo!, E*TRADE and ZDNet, and in Europe has established Internet joint ventures with News Corp. and Vivendi.
Recently formed, SOFTBANK Capital Partners (SBCP) is the newest Internet venture investment group sponsored by SOFTBANK Corp. SBCP closed its first fund with $1.25 billion. Formed by SOFTBANK's Founder and President Masayoshi Son, Vice Chairman of SOFTBANK, Inc. Ronald Fisher, and a co-founder of SOFTBANK Technology Ventures, Charles R. Lax, and now joined by former Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. e-commerce analyst Bill Burnham, SBCP will focus on late stage pre-IPO (mezzanine) and post IPO (PIPE) investments. Portfolio investments of SBCP include Global Sports, 1-800-Flowers.com, Webvan and OptiMark Technologies. SBCP is headquartered in Newton Center, MA.
SmartAge.com's mission is to help small and growing businesses find customers and make money on the Web. The company offers its community of small businesses twenty services including SmartClicks*, a free banner advertising exchange program that delivers click-thru rates at up to twice the industry norm. Since its founding in January 1998, SmartAge.com's membership has climbed from 25,000 to more than 700,000 small businesses and is growing by more than 21,000 members per week. Led by CEO and founder William Lohse, former CEO of SOFTBANK Forums and former President of Ziff-Davis Publishing, SmartAge.com employs over 90 professionals focused on the small business community. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with technical staff in Charlotte, N.C., and sales offices in Chicago and New York. SmartAge.com was named a "Hot 100" private company by Upside Magazine.
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