: imandi.com Secures $20 Million in Financing Led By Vulcan Ventures, Go2Net
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REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 13, 2000--imandi.com, the
Internet's first and largest reverse marketplace, today announced
that it has secured $20 million in its second round of venture
capital funding, led by Vulcan Ventures Inc., the investment
organization of Paul G. Allen, and Go2Net (NASDAQ:GNET), one of the
Internet's leading networks. Founded in November 1998, imandi.com is
a one-stop service that allows consumers to receive tailored quotes
for requested services and products from an extensive national
network of more than 200,000 local merchants.
In addition to Vulcan Ventures and Go2Net, this round of
financing also includes investments from the leading venture capital
firms of Menlo Ventures (backers of Hotmail, InfoSeek, UUNet and
Eve.com), Bertelsmann Ventures (NuvoMedia, ExpertCity, ONElist),
Madrona Investment Group (Amazon.com, HomeGrocer.com, Nordstrom.com),
and Northwest Venture Associates (AdRelevance, Packet Engines,
Netpodium).
"We're extremely excited to have Vulcan Ventures and Go2Net
invest in our vision of developing the Web's leading reverse
marketplace," said Raghav Kher, imandi.com President and Chief
Executive Officer. "This round of financing will be used to extend
our lead in the industry by implementing even more aggressive
customer acquisition and retention programs and increasing our
merchant network recruitment efforts."
"imandi.com has demonstrated over the past year a tremendous
capacity for growth," said William D. Savoy, president of Vulcan
Ventures. "With a successful business model and strong management
team, imandi.com has the potential to become a profitable leader in
the reverse marketplace category and create a positive shift in the
way people search for services and products."
"imandi.com has established itself as the leader in the rapidly
emerging reverse marketplace sector, and is exceptionally well
positioned to leverage the many opportunities ahead," said Russell
C. Horowitz, Go2Net Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We see
considerable upside to imandi's business and look forward to offering
their integrated solutions across the Go2Net Network, and as a key
ingredient to the HyperMart merchant marketplace."
Product Integration with Go2Net Network
Today's agreement includes a three-year, multi-million dollar
product marketing and integration component, in which imandi.com will
be integrated across the Go2Net Network, with emphasis on the
HyperMart Network, Go2Net's small business hosting and e-commerce
network, which recently surpassed one million members. In addition
to providing a co-branded reverse marketplace for the millions of
consumers who visit the Go2Net Network each day, the agreement will
also enable HyperMart member businesses to become members of imandi's
merchant network, adding the capability to generate qualified leads
for the sale of products and services.
Progress to-date:
Since its initial $15 million round closed in October 1999,
imandi.com has expanded its national merchant network to include more
than 200,000 local merchants offering more than 400 different
products and services. imandi has also increased site traffic
exponentially and has enhanced the customer experience by greatly
simplifying the quote request process. In addition to the strategic
agreement with Go2Net, imandi.com has formed strategic partnerships
with leading Internet properties, including Microsoft's bCentral,
AOL's Digital City, ePinions, iShip and eHow.
imandi.com's plans for this new round of financing include
introducing new customer acquisition tactics and expanding existing
customer retention programs. Additional business objectives involve
establishing new strategic partnerships that will continue to amplify
the reverse market shopping experience for customers, simplify the
merchant selection process, and make finding products or services
fast, easy and fun.
About imandi.com
imandi.com is the largest e-commerce reverse marketplace,
matching consumers with a growing network of more than 200,000
national and local merchants. Consumers detail their needs for
everything from household services to plane tickets or collectibles,
and affiliated merchants compete to deliver products and services
tailored to their specifications. imandi.com has developed strategic
partnerships with leading consumer and commerce sites such as Go2Net,
Microsoft's bCentral, AOL's Digital City, Epinions.com and eHow.
Based in Redmond, WA, imandi.com was founded by Microsoft alumni
Raghav Kher and Eric Johnson, and is backed by an investment group
led by Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures and Menlo Ventures.
About the Investors:
Vulcan Ventures Inc. of Bellevue, Washington was founded by Paul
G. Allen in 1986 to research and implement his investments. Through
Vulcan Ventures, Allen invests in companies which offer products,
services or technologies that fit his Wired World strategy and can
contribute to or benefit from the technology and strategy of other
companies within the group's extensive investment portfolio. In
addition, the group owns Charter Communications, the fourth largest
cable operating company in the United States with more than 6 million
subscribers. Recent investments include those in innovative content
(e.g. Oxygen Media, ZDTV), Internet and e-commerce (e.g.
Drugstore.com, eGreetings, Go2Net, Priceline.com, Stamps.com),
telecommunications (e.g. Allegiance Telecom, High Speed Access,
InterNAP, NorthPoint Communications) and consumer device and service
companies (e.g. Replay Networks, TiVo, and Wink Communications).
William D. Savoy is president of Vulcan Ventures and represents
Allen in his professional and personal financial transactions as well
as manages the Vulcan investment analysts who investigate and secure
investment opportunities. Allen remains chairman of Vulcan. For
more information on Vulcan visit www.paulallen.com.
Go2Net (http://www.go2net.com/) is one of the Internet's leading
networks, providing consumer services, business services and enabling
services. The company offers through the World Wide Web a network of
branded properties and aggregated content in the categories of search
and directory, personal finance, multi-player games, small business
services and e-commerce solutions. The company also develops
Internet technologies for its own network and for license to
strategic partners. The Go2Net Network is home to many of the
Internet's leading vertical destinations, including: MetaCrawler,
Silicon Investor, the HyperMart Network, PlaySite, Dogpile, and
100Hot.
Menlo Ventures is a private venture capital partnership providing
long-term capital and management support to early stage and emerging
growth companies. In the past 23 years, Menlo Ventures has invested
over $700 million in more than 200 companies in the areas of
communications, software and health care technology. Limited
partners include corporate and public pension funds, university
endowments, and insurance companies.
Bertelsmann Ventures (BV) is the independent Venture Capital Fund
of the world's third largest media company, Bertelsmann AG. BV has
offices in New York, Santa Barbara, California and Hamburg, Germany.
Bertelsmann Ventures is fully Internet centric, focusing on C2C, B2C
and B2B services, enabling technologies and the wireless applications
space. Bertelsmann Ventures primarily invests in early stage
companies with a strong management team and must be convinced that
they are principally capable of becoming the leader in their market
segment.
Madrona Venture Group LLC (Madrona) is an early-stage venture
capital firm focused on the Internet economy in the Northwest. The
firm has a $250 million venture fund directed at emerging Internet,
wireless, telecom and software businesses. Formed in 1999, Madrona
has made seed and early-stage private investments in over 50
Northwest high-tech companies, including Amazon.com, HomeGrocer.com
and Nordstrom.com. The firm seeks strong entrepreneurial teams;
innovative concepts with market-disruptive opportunities; and, models
that take advantage of cutting-edge technologies.
Northwest Venture Associates ("NVA") has $175 million under
management (including leverage from a pending SBIC application) and
is the largest venture capital fund manager focused exclusively on
companies headquartered in the Pacific Northwest. The funds were
established to provide equity capital and financial guidance to
successful, rapidly growing Northwest businesses managed by
entrepreneurial, creative and ethical individuals.
CONTACT: Edelman Worldwide/Seattle
imandi.com:
John Roeller or Rebecca Holmes, 206/223-1606
rebecca.holmes@edelman.com
or
Vulcan Ventures Inc.
Susan Pierson Brown, 425/453-1940
susanp@vnw.com
or
Go2Net, Inc.
Mark S. Peterson, 206/447-1595
mark@go2net.com
KEYWORD: WASHINGTON
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: INTERNET E-COMMERCE
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