Knewton Raises $6 Million Round Of Funding Led By Bessemer Venture Partners and Accel Partners

New York, NY (Vocus) April 7, 2009

Knewton (http://www.knewton.com), a leading online educational company, today announced it has closed a $ 6 million Series B round of funding. Bessemer Venture Partners is leading this round alongside returning investors Accel Partners, First Round Capital, and angel investors such as Peter Stern (Datek Co-Founder & CTO).

Knewton's new financing will accelerate expansion to meet the surging enterprise demand for its adaptive learning engine and rapid consumer growth in its online test prep services. The new round will fund further development of Knewton's open platform--designed to bring adaptive testing, adaptive learning, and concept-level reporting to any third-party educational content.

"Knewton is one of the most interesting, and potentially revolutionary, educational technologies we've encountered," said Rob Stavis, a partner at Bessemer and a three-time member of the Forbes Midas List. "We are excited to help Knewton cement its position as the leader in adaptive learning and online test prep."

Simon Levene from Accel Partners said: "Since we invested a year ago, Knewton's growth and achievements have been remarkable. It's a testament to the exceptional team, disruptive business model, and strong execution. Students and educators have already found great value in the service, and we're pleased to help deliver it to an even wider audience."

Knewton recently unveiled LSAT and GMAT preparation courses powered by the company's proprietary adaptive learning engine. The algorithms behind Knewton's platform identify the strengths and weaknesses of each student's skills at the concept level, then dynamically customize content to match his or her precise knowledge gaps and learning style. Knewton's direct-to-consumer test prep classes are taught by industry leading "Master Teachers" in an online video classroom and then archived for on-demand review. Live office hours provide students further time with instructors. Student score improvements to date have been so dramatic that Knewton offers a money-back guarantee of at least 50 points on the GMAT and at least 5 points on the LSAT.

"Educational content is just beginning a massive, one-time shift to digital distribution, just as news, music, and video have already experienced," said Jose Ferreira, CEO of Knewton. "We think Knewton will emerge as the platform that powers this new era of online education; more importantly, customers and investors seem to think so as well."

Education industry experts are closely following Knewton's development. "Knewton's adaptive learning engine is the most innovative educational technology I've ever seen," said Greg Rorke, former CEO of Kaplan, Inc. "They are going to revolutionize not just the test prep industry, but possibly the entire practice of education."

About Knewton

Knewton has developed the industry's most powerful adaptive learning engine, customizing educational content to meet the individual needs of each student. Whereas textbooks and other traditional content vehicles provide the same material in the same order to every student, Knewton dynamically matches lessons, videos, and practice problems to each student's ideal learning arc. Constant assessment across dimensions such as difficulty, frequency, and media maximizes learning efficiency and concept mastery. Knewton's test prep courses for the GMAT, LSAT, SAT, and GRE bring the brightest and most experienced teachers directly to students worldwide via a live and on-demand online video classroom. The Knewton platform also powers third-party educational content from major publishers, corporations, and other organizations. Knewton was founded by Jose Ferreira, a former Kaplan executive, with Series A funding from Accel Partners and First Round Capital and angel investors including Ron Conway. http://www.knewton.com

About Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners is a global investment group with offices in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Bangalore, Mumbai, Beijing, and Tel Aviv. As the oldest venture capital practice in the United States, BVP has partnered as an active, hands-on investor in Ciena, Ingersoll Rand, Parametric, Skype, Staples, VeriSign, and W.R. Grace, among many others. More than 100 BVP-funded companies have gone public on exchanges in Canada, India, London, and the United States. http://www.bvp.com/

About Accel Partners

Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of excellence and innovation in the venture capital business and is dedicated to partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class companies. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California; London, UK; and Bangalore, India; as well as in China via the IDG-Accel Partnership. With over $ 6 billion under management, Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful category-defining companies including: ComScore, Facebook, GlamMedia, Interwoven, Kayak, Macromedia, Polycom/PictureTel, Real Networks, UUNet, Walmart.com, and XenSource. http://www.accel.com

About First Round Capital

First Round Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm dedicated to helping talented entrepreneurs build remarkable companies. First Round Capital typically funds pre-revenue companies--and often provides a company's first outside capital. The firm has invested in over 75 early stage companies. http://www.firstround.com/

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Skyscape's Mobile Healthcare Professional Community Crosses the 1 Million Mark

Marlborough, MA (PRWEB) May 30, 2009

Skyscape

Craigslist Competitor OLX Receives $5 Million in Funding

New York City, NY (PRWEB) May 10, 2009

OLX -- the largest international classified site on the web -- raises an additional $ 5 million making the total raised to date $ 28.5 million.

Only Classified Site to Operate in 87 Countries and 39 Languages; Funding to Support Company's Aggressive Global Growth Strategy And Continued Technology Leadership

OLX, the Craigslist for the rest of the world, has raised $ 5 million in funding from Nexus India Capital. OLX raised $ 13.5 million in Series B funding in April 2008 from General Catalyst Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Founders Fund and DN Capital, bringing the total raised to date to $ 28.5 million. OLX raised an undisclosed Series A round of $ 10 million in September 2006 with the same VCs and various angels participating.

"In the past three years, OLX has grown to 125 employees, launched in 87 countries in 39 languages, completed four acquisitions, including the purchase of Mundoanuncio, made an investment in Edeng and signed major partnership agreements to run classifieds for third parties such as Friendster," said Fabrice Grinda, founder and CEO of OLX. "This new investment will enable us to continue to grow rapidly through a combination of site improvements, continued global deployments, new acquisitions and more aggressive marketing."

OLX is the next generation of free online classifieds and has over 50 million unique monthly visitors per month and 400 million page views per month. With OLX, it's simple to sell, buy, trade, discuss, organize and meet people near you, wherever you reside. On OLX you can:

Jivox Secures $8.2 Million in Funding to Meet Growing Market Demand for Interactive Video Ads on Multiple Screens

San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) November 01, 2011

Jivox today announced it secured $ 8.2 million in financing to support rapid adoption of its interactive video advertising technology. Fortisure Ventures led the round and existing investors Opus Capital, Helion Advisors and Diaz Nesamoney reaffirmed their commitment to Jivox through their participation. In addition to the new financing, Mani Subramanian, CEO of Fortisure Ventures and John Squires, CEO of Akademos will join Jivoxs Board of Directors.

The industry is at a tipping point as advertisers now understand the need for more engaging and creative interactive ads that reach viewers on multiple screens and across social channels, said Diaz Nesamoney, CEO and founder of Jivox. This strategic investment will allow us to accelerate the rapid adoption of our interactive video advertising platform, which we designed to solve technology complexities of delivering creative and innovative online video ads at scale and on any screen. Additionally, we plan to use this investment to build out our technology platform and realize our vision of bringing interactive ad technologies to all screens.

A new eMarketer forecast estimates mobile ad spending in the US will reach $ 1.23 billion this year, a 65 percent increase over 2010. As such, mobile is increasingly part of the overall ad buy and ensuring video ads effectively run on multiple screens without complexities is no longer an option but a must. Jivox, which currently delivers more than 1,000 interactive video ad campaigns a month, is uniquely positioned to address this market need as it is the only platform that truly enables interactive video ads to run on multiple screens with an ad serving infrastructure that can deliver at scale.

Were very excited about Jivoxs success in the market and see great potential in the companys ability to fundamentally alter the way interactive digital video ads are created, delivered and measured, said Mani Subramanian, CEO of Fortisure Ventures. As an investment firm that prides itself on identifying breakthrough innovators, we believe that Jivoxs unique interactive technology will advance the advertising industry and help bring creativity and innovation to digital video, thereby encouraging more brands to spend on digital media.

In addition to the funding, Jivox announced two new board members:

PlaySpan Announces $18 Million in Series C Funding

Santa Clara, CA (PRWEB) August 19, 2010

PlaySpan, Inc., the global leader in digital goods, micro-transaction and global payment platforms, today announced $ 18 million in Series C investment led by Vodafone Ventures and Softbank Bodhi Fund, with participation from existing investors Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures, STIC, and other undisclosed investors.

This new capital increases the company's total funding to approximately $ 42 million. The new funding will be used to expand into Europe and Asia and to grow PlaySpan's global publisher and user-base.

"Over the last few years, PlaySpan has emerged as the undisputed global market leader in the monetization platform category, and we continue to drive new innovations in the payments and ecommerce space that has spurred new high-growth business models," said Karl Mehta, Founder & CEO of PlaySpan. "It is a testament to our market-leading position, demonstrated growth, and the fast-growing digital goods micro-transactions space, that we have raised another significant round from top investors."

PlaySpans UltimatePay Monetization-as-a-Service model has gained rapid adoption and is poised for tremendous growth because it provides developers and publishers an integrated out-of-the-box platform for managing secure, efficient, global micropayments, ecommerce, and micro-transactions across 180 countries. PlaySpans consumer facing monetization services have attracted millions of users across its industry leading Ultimate Game Card and PlaySpan.com marketplace, said Mehta.

PlaySpan has emerged as the clear industry leader in this fast-growing space and has built a full stack platform that is proven with millions of consumers and thousands of merchants worldwide," said Matthew Fix, Principal, Vodafone Ventures. Were thrilled to be able to support their ongoing success with both partners and end-users as they realize their full vision of a universal micro-payments solution."

Were pleased to welcome Vodafone and Softbank to PlaySpan as they continue to lead the market in online monetization. Their inputs will be particularly helpful as we expand internationally, Shawn Carolan, Managing Director, Menlo Ventures and board member of PlaySpan Inc.

About PlaySpan, Inc.