• Rubicon Project

  Participated · Series D · Nov 2010

  Rubicon Project is a Los Angeles-based display ad optimization platform that focuses on programmatic display advertising technology. It completed the purchase of parts of the Fox Audience Network from News Corp, acquiring primarily technology assets including an ad server, the MyAds self-service ad buying platform, targeting technology, and real-time bidding algorithms. The company took on about 100 of FAN’s technology employees as part of the deal; FAN’s third-party ad network was excluded. Concurrent with the acquisition, Rubicon raised $18 million from a group of strategic and venture investors. News Corporation acquired a minority stake in Rubicon as a result of the asset transfer plus cash. The company said it expects revenues to hit $100 million in 2010 and reported it reached profitability for the first time in October. Rubicon Project is an Internet advertising infrastructure company that provides ad-optimization technology for publishers and buyers. Based in Los Angeles, it serves more than 1,500 premium customers, including Gannett, CareerBuilder, Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive and YellowPages.com. The company's platform optimizes more than 45 billion ads each month across hundreds of demand sources. Recently the Rubicon Project acquired Others Online, an audience optimization company, and opened offices in London and Sydney. Management says the new funds will fuel business growth initiatives, including additional strategic acquisitions and international expansion. The company has increased its Series C financing by $9M, bringing total Series C investments to $42M. Rubicon Project is a Los Angeles-based ad optimization company that helps take ads from ad networks and place them on publishers' websites. Its software aims to help publishers fill available ad space with the highest-paying ads while enabling networks to run their ads across many publishers. Publishers it works with include The Washington Post, Gannett, USA Today, Salon, Slide and Buzznet. The company says its software can help premium news outlets increase revenue by up to 60% a year. Rubicon reported revenue growth of 150% in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. It plans to use new funding for strategic acquisitions, research and development, infrastructure and international expansion. Rubicon Project builds technology that helps websites find the best ad networks to partner with, aiming to optimize online advertising. The Los Angeles company raised $15 million in a second round of funding led by the Mayfield Fund. That round follows a $6 million first round in October, bringing total financing to $21 million. The article notes the company was profiled shortly after its first round, indicating early market interest. The piece does not disclose operating metrics or specific product roadmap details. The Rubicon Project is a Los Angeles-based Internet advertising technology company. The company announced a $6 million Series A to fund its operations. Investors in the round included Clearstone Venture Partners ($4 million) and Square1 Bank ($2 million). CEO and founder Frank Addante said Clearstone’s philosophies make them an ideal investment partner and noted Clearstone’s past successes. The company was named after the Italian river and idiom signifying a point of no return. The Rubicon Project planned to launch in private beta on October 8, 2007.

• Vivox

  Led · Equity · Jul 2010

  Vivox provides voice chat services for social applications, with offerings that complement presence and text features. The company supports virtual goods and audio advertising as part of its product portfolio. Vivox received a $2M equity investment from Peacock Equity to fund expansion into new markets and to enhance its complementary offerings. Peacock Equity is a $250M joint investment fund of GE Capital’s Media, Communications & Entertainment business and NBC Universal. Peacock joins existing investors Benchmark Capital, Canaan Partners, GrandBanks Capital and IDG Ventures. The Vivox Network supports 30 million users in over 180 countries, and customers include CCP Games, Linden Lab, Nexon, Realtime Worlds, Sony Online Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast. Vivox provides voice services that connect people and communities across PC, game consoles and web-based social networks such as Facebook. Its core product is an integrated voice platform used by online games and virtual worlds. Customers and partners include CCP Games, Gaia Online, Hi-Rez Studios, IMVU, Linden Lab, NCsoft, Nexon, Realtime Worlds, Sony Online Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast. Rob Seaver, the company's founder and CEO, said that with investor support Vivox will continue to innovate. At the time of this article Vivox had secured $6.8M in its third round of equity financing.

• Healthline Media

  Participated · Equity · Apr 2010

  Healthline Media is the consumer-facing remainder of Healthline Networks after the company split, focused on providing high-quality consumer healthcare information online. The remaining operations were renamed Healthline Media and David Kopp, formerly GM of the media division, was named CEO of the standalone business. Summit Partners invested $95 million into Healthline Media to support its growth plans and enable a more rapid expansion. Concurrently, Healthline spun off its Talix unit, which was separately capitalized with $14 million from former Healthline Networks shareholders. Talix, launched in 2015, is a software-as-a-service health IT company led by Healthline Networks CEO Dean Stephens. Several investors from the transaction took seats on the Talix board as part of the capitalization. Healthline Networks is a San Francisco-based provider of health information services offering health information and related network services. The company completed a $14M third round of financing to support its operations. The funds will be used to expand research and development, engineering, sales and network services. Healthline will also work to expand its advertising platform and services. The investment round was positioned as strategic, involving media- and publishing-focused investors. In conjunction with the funding, Phil Dur of Investor Growth Capital joined Healthline’s board of directors.

• Trion Worlds

  Participated · Series C · Sep 2008

  Trion Worlds develops large-scale massively multiplayer online games and a distributed server platform that hosts gameplay in its cloud. Its first title, Rift, reached more than one million activated accounts in under four months and uses a monthly subscription revenue model. The company reported North American and European revenues surpassing $100 million in 2011. Trion has invested tens of millions in its software/hardware infrastructure and is building platform initiatives—branded Red Door—to run third-party games and offer a consumer-facing storefront. It is developing additional projects including End of Nations (with Petroglyph Games) and Defiance, a partnership with the Syfy Channel that ties a TV show to online gameplay. With the new capital, Trion plans to continue scaling infrastructure, experiment with business models, and expand its platform and game slate; Reuters has reported the company is thinking about an IPO. Trion World Network is an online games developer whose titles run on company servers rather than on users' machines. That server-based architecture keeps gameplay, characters, and player interactions on Trion’s servers, enabling the company to remodel less-played portions of games and add content on-the-fly. Consumers need only a few simple downloads to run Trion’s games on their computers. Trion is developing its first MMORPG in partnership with NBC Universal’s Sci‑Fi channel and a separate fantasy MMORPG with designer Jon Van Caneghem. The company raised $70 million in a Series C round, indicating investor confidence in its approach and the broader popularity of gaming. No release dates or detailed operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

No current team members are available.