News
myYearbook.com Raises $4.1M in Venture Funding
NEW HOPE, Pa.-(Business Wire)-January 25, 2007 - myYearbook.com, a leading social networking site for teens, announced today that it has raised $4.1 Million in Series A funding from U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) and First Round Capital.
"We're excited to have USVP and First Round Capital on board. Their investment will help finance the expansion of myYearbook including significant additions to technical infrastructure, sales, and product development," announced Geoff Cook, co-founder and CEO of myYearbook.com.
Rick Lewis will represent USVP on the myYearbook.com Board of Directors.
"myYearbook.com has quickly attracted a large audience by focusing on providing an enjoyable and useful environment for teens, at a time when advertisers are struggling to reach teens through traditional media," said Rick Lewis of U.S. Venture Partners. "We are delighted to work with the myYearbook.com team to realize the site's full potential as a leading teen media property."
myYearbook.com goes beyond banner ads by implementing effective and innovative web marketing programs for teens. From promoting movies to sparkle body sprays, myYearbook serves ads that enhance rather than compete with the user experience. This strategy effectively attracts loyal members, which in turn become strong consumer audiences for everything from educational materials to movies and energy drinks.
"Teens don't want banner ads on their profiles," explained Catherine Cook, co-founder and high school student. "Banner ads negatively affect the user experience, and it's not clear that they're effective. I am the 'target demographic' and I am constantly listening to our members. I know that the main way to convince teenagers to see a movie or to buy a product is to show us that our friends are doing it. Ads on myYearbook.com are tools to not only introduce a product, but also to add to a user's experience on the site."
myYearbook.com currently counts more than 1.7 million members in the United States and around the world, and over 5 million unique visitors per month.
About myYearbook.com
myYearbook.com is an online yearbook for the digital age where more than 1,700,000 young people around the world—from teens to college students to young professionals—gather to socialize. The youngest internet site for social networking, myYearbook.com was founded by Catherine Cook, a high school senior, and her older brother Dave Cook, who graduated from high school in June 2006 and is now a freshman at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Their first investor was their older brother, Geoff, a veteran Internet entrepreneur who founded and sold a set of online writing and editing services, EssayEdge.com and ResumeEdge.com, while a Harvard undergrad. The company is headquartered in New Hope, PA.
About U.S. Venture Partners
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 communications and networking systems, internet and e-commerce businesses, semiconductors and optical components, enterprise and technical software, and medical devices and biopharmaceuticals. Since its inception in 1981, USVP has invested more than $1.8 billion in over 350 companies, resulting in over 70 IPOs and numerous positive merger outcomes. Today, there are more than 100 active companies in the USVP portfolio.
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. As former entrepreneurs, the partners at First Round understand the challenges of launching a new enterprise, and offer insight and expertise that are as valuable as its venture capital. The firm has invested in dozens of early stage companies including Aggregate Knowledge, Jingle Networks (1-800-FREE411), Krugle, Riya, StumbleUpon and VideoEgg. Additional information on First Round Capital is available via the Internet at http://www.firstround.com.
