Pixazza Raises $12 Million Series B Round

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Pixazza, Inc., a web service that is changing the way that consumers interact with images on the web, today announced that the company has raised $12 million in Series B financing. The investment was led by Shasta Ventures, with Series A investors August Capital, CMEA Capital and Google Ventures also participating in the round. Pixazza plans to use its new funds to capitalize on its early market leadership position, fuel product growth, and facilitate category and geographic expansion.

Pixazza provides consumers with information relevant to the images on popular websites. By enabling consumers to simply mouse over images to learn more, see related products or make purchases instantly, Pixazza has pioneered the use of images as real estate for branding and ecommerce that drives advertising and revenue opportunities for publishers and merchants. As a result, Pixazza has created a compelling value proposition for consumers, web publishers and advertisers alike, spurring widespread adoption.

The company also disclosed today that it now reaches more than 25 million unique visitors per month through its extensive publisher network. Of these visitors, two-thirds are based in the U.S. Additionally, Pixazza delivers commerce-enabled photos at a rate of 8 billion image views per year, a 60% increase in the last three months. The company also has moved to 50 in Quantcast's top U.S. network ranking. Each of these markers underscores the breadth and depth of Pixazza's consumer reach to publishers and advertisers who hope to capitalize on consumer interest in interactive content.

"Images dominate the Internet and comprise the most visually appealing aspects of many websites, yet images have remained static for more than 15 years," said Bob Lisbonne, CEO of Pixazza. "This new round of funding provides the resources to realize our vision of making every image interactive by revealing the information inside the trillions of images across the web."

With this new round of financing, Shasta Ventures, Managing Director Tod Francis will join Pixazza's board of directors.

"In a remarkably short time, Pixazza has developed a service that offers real value to all of its constituents by fundamentally changing the way images function on the web," said Mr. Francis. "This veteran team, comprised of senior talent at the forefront of browser development at Netscape and crowdsourcing at LiveOps, has sparked considerable excitement in a burgeoning space."

In addition to the increase in adoption from publishers, advertisers, and consumers, Pixazza has made significant strides in product development over the past year, launching its AdPix program for innovative use of images for display advertising and releasing its Shopdot service for creating branded, hosted storefronts for publisher websites. The company also detailed its expanded focus on vertical markets for its flagship "Product in the Picture" service.  Today, Pixazza also unveiled a new self-serve publishing tool enabling even more publishers to benefit from Pixazza's ground-breaking technology (see related release for details).

How Pixazza Works

To use Pixazza, consumers simply mouse over an image posted on a publisher's site and information instantly appears, providing details, pricing for similar products, and if desired, the ability to click to purchase. More than ten million products are available today from dozens of merchants.

Pixazza is uniquely positioned to offer consumers this valued information through its crowdsourcing platform which combines product experts and computer algorithms to dynamically create and deliver the optimal content related to each image. Rather than rely exclusively on technology to drive product gathering and matching, its platform harnesses the taste, judgment and insights of product experts across time and distance to orchestrate the process. They identify, tag and match products found within online images and then link them back to the inventories of Pixazza's network of advertisers.

Consumers appreciate the ability to immediately find out more information or where to buy the products that capture their attention while browsing their favorite websites while Pixazza offers them the mechanism to instantly purchase an item. Publishers also benefit from Pixazza by offering high-value, new end-user features while simultaneously generating incremental revenue, driving additional site traffic, and increasing session times.  Finally, advertisers enjoy the opportunity to reach a highly targeted audience for both brand advertising and direct response advertising. Pixazza connects consumers with products and brands in way that is unique, compelling and measurable for the advertiser.  

To learn more about how Pixazza is changing the way images are experienced, please visit www.pixazza.com

About Shasta Ventures

Shasta Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in technology-enabled businesses serving consumers and enterprises. Located in Menlo Park, California, Shasta Ventures has $460 million dollars under management. Shasta was formed in 2004 by venture capital veterans and has made nearly 40 investments to date across consumer and business services, mobile and software. For more information on Shasta Ventures, please visit www.shastaventures.com.

About August Capital

Founded in 1995, August Capital has funded an extraordinary group of entrepreneurs who have built significant, long-term value across the full range of information technologies. These companies represent an aggregate market capitalization of well over $250 billion, generate in excess of $75 billion in annual revenue around the world. This success is a testament to the entrepreneurs themselves, as well as the fundamental technologies they have created. The partners at August Capital were the earliest investors in a number of ground breaking technology companies,  including Microsoft, Intuit, Seagate, Sun, Skype, Compaq, Symantec, Sybase, Atheros, Grand Junction and many more. August Capital is located in Menlo Park, California. For more information, please visit: www.augustcap.com.

About CMEA Capital

CMEA Capital provides capital to entrepreneurs and investors in the life sciences, information technology, and energy & materials sectors. Through its combination of solid scientific credentials and seasoned management expertise, CMEA identifies, funds and manages new businesses based on the emerging, interdisciplinary science required to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing global economy. The firm currently manages seven funds representing investments in excess of $1 billion. CMEA has been an early stage investor in many leading companies, including A123Systems, Codexis, Entropic (ENTR), Flextronics (FLEX), Magma (LAVA), Maxygen (MAXY), Silicon Spice (BRCM), Solyndra, and Symyx (SMMX).

About Google Ventures

Google Ventures seeks to discover and help develop great companies - we believe in the power of entrepreneurs to do amazing things. Our investments range from seed to late stage, across a broad range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, hardware, clean tech, biotechnology and health care. We embrace the challenge of helping young companies grow from the proverbial garage to global relevance. The Google Ventures team includes entrepreneurs, investors and innovators, along with some 20,000+ exceptional Googlers whose breadth of knowledge, experience and creativity constitute perhaps our most valuable resource. For more information, visit

www.google.com/ventures.

SOURCE Pixazza, Inc.