Company Fills Online Customer Retention Void With Dotomi Direct Messaging (TM); Investor Growth Capital Leads the Round as New Investor, Joined by U.S. Venture Partners and Velocity Equity Partners
BOSTON, 09/27/2004 -- Dotomi, the leader of online customer retention for permission-based messaging between marketers and consumers, today announced the closing of $10.5 million dollars in funding led by Investor Growth Capital ("IGC"), a new Dotomi investor. Existing investor U.S. Venture Partners ("USVP") and new investor Velocity Equity Partners also participated in the round. The funding will be used to grow the Company's sales force and marketing programs to continue to position Dotomi Direct MessagingTM as the best one-to-one communication channel for building and retaining strong online marketer-consumer relationships.
Dotomi Direct Messaging cuts through the clutter by delivering personal, relevant and timely messages to marketers' opt-in customers within the ad banner space as they surf the Web. It is a cost-effective way to communicate with consumers that have raised their hand and asked their favorite marketers to keep them informed. This offers loyalty marketing opportunities for retention, up-selling and cross-selling.
"We've seen great innovations in our industry that help marketers acquire new customers, and virtually no options besides e-mail marketing to build upon and strengthen relationships with existing customers," said John Federman, president and CEO of Dotomi. "The only other way to reach opt-in customers directly on the Web with a personal, relevant and timely message is Dotomi Direct Messaging. When a marketer's message is based on a consumer's self-expressed interests and delivered in a respectful way, consumers respond positively and buy more, which is evident in our Dotomi Direct Messaging 7-12% average click-through responses."
According to industry analyst firm Jupiter Research, spending on e-mail marketing in the U.S. will rise from $2.1 billion in 2003 to $6.1 billion in 2008, with online advertising growing from $8 billion in 2003 to $14.8 billion in 2008. In addition, Jupiter states that over the course of 2003, the average U.S. online consumer received 3,920 unwanted commercial e-mail messages. This number will grow to reach an outrageous total of 6,395 by the end of 2008. However, contrary to popular belief, spam is not the greatest barrier to reaching consumers. Rather, it is the volume of messages sent by legitimate marketers. Dotomi solves this communication problem by providing the benefits of data-driven messages similar to e-mail marketing, but delivered unobtrusively in the ad banner space â€" finding consumers as they surf the Web.
"We saw in Dotomi a company with a first-class management team that has successfully implemented its business model with over seventy customers in the Israeli marketplace, said David Lee, Managing Director of Investor Growth Capital. "It is clear that the market is in transition and maturing around online consumer behavior and marketer interactions. Dotomi Direct Messaging answers the call by empowering consumers, lowering the cost of sale of building strong online relationships for marketers and maximizing publishers' advertising inventory."
As part of the funding, David Lee of IGC has joined the Dotomi Board of Directors, which also consists of Phil Young and Tim Connors of USVP, Scott Kurnit, former CEO of About.com and Yair Goldfinger and John Federman of Dotomi. Angel investor Esther Dyson of CNET Networks participates in Dotomi's Advisory Board as a private individual.
"We have invested in building a strong management team to lead the market in delivering a one-on-one direct communication between marketers and consumers that no other company can deliver today," said Phil Young, Managing Director of U.S. Venture Partners. "As Dotomi's Co-founder and CTO, Yair Goldfinger delivered on the promise of permission-based communication with Instant Messaging, he now fills the same void in the interactive marketing space with Dotomi Direct Messaging, a value-add to consumers, marketers and publishers."
About Investor Growth Capital
Investor Growth Capital is a venture capital and private equity advisory group wholly owned by Investor AB, the largest industrial holding company in the Nordic region. Investor Growth Capital focuses on investments in growth companies in the IT and healthcare sectors in Europe, North America and Asia. For more information, go to: www.investorgrowthcapital.com.
About USVP
U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) is a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build world-class companies that are leaders in their industry. USVP focuses on early stage opportunities in sectors where the Partners have the domain expertise, operating experience and network of relationships to provide meaningful contribution to the success of the enterprise. These sectors include digital communications and networking systems, Internet and eCommmerce infrastructure, semiconductors and optical components, enterprise and technical software, and medical devices and biopharmaceuticals. Since its inception in 1981, USVP has raised more than $2.5 billion in eight funds, including a $1 billion fund that closed in January 2001. For more information, visit http://www.usvp.com.
About Velocity Equity Partners
Velocity Equity Partners is a private venture capital firm investing in early stage growth companies primarily in the Northeast. Velocity's mission is to create value by identifying and supporting outstanding entrepreneurs with unique innovations and a powerful drive to build market-leading companies. Velocity's partners work with management teams to create premier companies in their field with the help of capital, expertise in building companies, and access to key networks. For more information, visit www.velocityep.com.
About Dotomi
Founded by the creator of Instant Messaging, Dotomi changes the way marketers communicate with their customers by creating a one-to-one messaging channel on the Web. Dotomi Direct Messaging™ transforms traditional ad banner space into a personal message window, which empowers marketers with the ability to deliver personal, timely and relevant content to individual consumers. Dotomi is pioneering this new form of consumer outreach - leveraging the power of consumer opt-in via ad banner real-estate. Since Dotomi's launch in March 2003 in Israel, the Company established over 575,000 distinct "points of permission" with some of the largest corporations in Israel, such as: American Express, Blockbuster, Tower Records, Meridian Hotels and iBooks, and is currently the only company offering this level of one-to-one marketing in the ad banner space. Dotomi is privately held, with headquarters in Boston and offices in New York and Tel Aviv. For more information about Dotomi, please visit www.dotomi.com or call 617-399-5000.
###
<< Consumers Rule |
Dotomi Press Releases |
Dotomi Inspires Leadership Program >>
page 6 of 10 |
|
