IRVINE, CA (BUSINESS WIRE) – June 12, 2006 – SpecificMEDIA, an online media network and audience targeting company, today announced the close of its first round of venture financing. The Series A round was led by Enterprise Partners Venture Capital and includes Shepherd Ventures. The funding will be used to expand marketing and sales efforts, including the addition of sales offices in key U.S. media markets and to further deploy SpecificMEDIA’s user targeting technologies.
This financing follows a period of remarkable growth for the company. During the past 12 months, SpecificMEDIA achieved a 500 percent increase in the number of advertisers it services and exceeded 90 percent retention rates. The company currently serves hundreds of clients each month. Tim Vanderhook, president and CEO, said: “By taking a next-generation approach to online advertising and providing tremendous performance advantages, we’ve been able to attract and retain a significant number of new clients. These new advertisers, in turn, have provided us with the ability to rapidly expand our network reach to nearly 80 million U.S. monthly unique users.”
SpecificMEDIA, founded in 1999, enables advertisers to target audiences through advanced demographic, behavioral, contextual, geographic and retargeting technologies across a network of premium, name-brand Web sites. “SpecificMEDIA has always been a technology innovator and continues to break new ground by enabling advertisers to target online audiences versus the traditional method of targeting content. Our technology platform is unparalleled in the industry, and our ability to target every user demographically, behaviorally, contextually, and geographically separates us from other ad networks. In order to continue our technology development and fast track our expansion plans, we are extremely pleased to partner with Enterprise Partners Venture Capital and Shepherd Ventures,” commented Vanderhook.
Tom Siegel, managing director of Shepherd Ventures, said: “This management team has simplified the business of online audience targeting for advertisers. SpecificMEDIA allows advertisers to select the exact audience they are seeking, measure extensively and calibrate media spend to media effectiveness – and they do it profitably.”
Carl Eibl, managing director of lead investor Enterprise Partners, said: “SpecificMEDIA presents a compelling investment opportunity given their unique approach to online advertising and profitable business model. Internet advertising is seeing explosive growth with nearly $4B of spend in Q1’06 alone. We’re confident that SpecificMEDIA is well positioned to capitalize on this growth.”
About SpecificMEDIA
SpecificMEDIA is an innovative technology and online media company that enables advertisers to pinpoint their target audiences through advanced demographic, behavioral, contextual, geographic and retargeting technologies across a network of branded, top-tier sites. Web sites in the SpecificMEDIA network reach nearly 80 million U.S. monthly unique users and include more than 450 premier brands such as: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, ESPN, Major League Baseball, Sportsline.com, The Weather Channel, USA Today and VIACOM. For additional information, visit www.specificmedia.com.
About Enterprise Partners Venture Capital
Enterprise Partners was founded in 1985 and is the largest venture firm with headquarters in Southern California, with over $1.1 billion in capital under management. Enterprise focuses on seed, early-stage and promising later-stage companies across a broad spectrum of technologies and the life sciences. The firm is currently investing its sixth fund and has headquarters in San Diego. www.epvc.com.
About Shepherd Ventures
Shepherd Ventures is a leading venture capital firm investing in early- to later-stage information technology and life science investments. The firm invests in digital media, wireless, software, technology infrastructure, medical devices and biotechnology as well as other technologies. Shepherd Ventures has headquarters in San Diego. www.shepherdventures.com.
