SemantiNet Announces Combined $3.4M Series A Funding Round, New US Office
First Product Will Use Israeli Developed Technology for Semantic Web Based Information Discovery
TEL AVIV, Israel, and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4 -- SemantiNet(TM), Ltd. -- a pre-launch company that has developed software enabling the discovery of new information as part of the natural browsing experience -- today announced it has secured $3.4M in Series A funding. In addition, the company has opened a new San Francisco sales and marketing office to support its upcoming worldwide product launch in late September of 2008. R&D remains based in Tel Aviv, with technology development based on extensive experience gained by the key engineers in the Israeli Army elite R&D unit.
The Series A round is a combination of investments from Israel's leading venture capital fund with several renowned private investors who have recognized the unique technology behind SemantiNet's upcoming product -- as well as its inherent value proposition. Series A investors include:
-- Giza Venture Capital established in 1992, is a pioneer investor in seed and early-stage technology companies. Giza currently manages four funds totaling $500 million. Giza has invested in 87 companies in the sectors of Communications, IT, Software, Life Sciences, Media, Internet, Gaming & Entertainment, with 32 exits.
-- Sir Ronald Cohen is one of the world's leading private-equity investors. At the age of 26, he co-founded the firm that became Apax Partners, the largest global private-equity firm based in Europe with an impressive investment record -- more than $20 billion under management. Sir Cohen was also the lead investor in Autonomy(R) Corporation plc the company spearheading the meaning-based computing movement. A recipient of the British Venture Capital Association's Hall of Fame award and the Harvard Business School's Alumni Achievement Award, he is also an honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College.
-- Dr. Joseph 'Yossi' Vardi is one of Israel's high-tech legends -- several companies Dr Vardi co-founded became some of the country's largest and most successful public firms. Dr Vardi was also the founding investor and former chairman of Mirabilis(TM), Ltd., the creator of the highly popular instant messaging program ICQ(R). ICQ pioneered the instant messaging phenomenon and was one of the most successful and popular Internet products of all time, with close to 400 million downloads. The company was acquired by AOL(R) and he is now a strategic adviser to both AOL and Amazon(R).
-- Mr. Jeff Pulver is the Chairman and Founder of pulver.com and one of the true pioneers of the VoIP industry as the co-founder of VoIP provider, Vonage(R). Mr. Pulver is a globally renowned thought leader, author and entrepreneur.
Quotes:
"The announcement of our first funding round and new US office is a 'heads-up' to the high-tech community about SemantiNet prior to our official launch," said Mr. Tal Keinan, CEO of SemantiNet, Ltd. "We are very fortunate to have an 'A-list' of venture capitalists and legendary business figures supporting SemantiNet not just with funding, but their accumulated knowledge and perspective. The new US office is a key part of our upcoming launch -- we need to be geographically close to the epicenter of Silicon Valley and companies such as Facebook(R), Google(R), Microsoft(R), Mozilla(R) and Yahoo!(R). Our upcoming product announcement leverages key technologies and services from all 5 companies -- and many others -- as well as our patent-pending Semantic Web breakthrough."
"SemantiNet's core technology is now being leveraged by a unique consumer application, combining a crowd-sourcing approach with the power of semantic web reasoning," said Mr. Oz Leave, Chairman of the Board for SemantiNet. "We are very excited to be launching later this month and are looking forward to providing our users with an information discovery assistant that is fun to use, easy-to-understand and seamlessly integrated into their browser."
About SemantiNet:
SemantiNet, Ltd. is a pre-launch startup with headquarters and R&D based in Tel Aviv, Israel in addition to a sales and marketing office in San Francisco, Calif. The company's first product will be announced in late September of 2008, combining leading-edge semantic web technology with crowd-sourcing, state-of-the-art cross-platform multimedia and integrated browser functionality. Interested beta testers can sign up at the company's website -- http://www.semantinet.com/.
SemantiNet is a trademark of SemantiNet, Ltd. All other trademarks and registered trademarks previously cited are the property of their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged. Editor's Note: Images and logos are available from SemantiNet's public relations counsel.
SemantiNet
