Kenshoo Secures $12 Million Late Stage Funding for Opportunistic Product Innovation and Global Expansion

SAN FRANCISCO, November 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Kenshoo, the global leader in premium digital marketing software, today announced it has raised $12 million in a late stage financing round led by Tenaya Capital. All existing Kenshoo investors, including Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Growth Fund, and Arts Alliance participated in this latest round.

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Kenshoo will use the funding to support ongoing double and triple digit annual growth rates within its search marketing and social media business units as well as further penetrate key geographic markets. The financing will also help Kenshoo more aggressively create new opportunities for brands and agencies to address the entire purchase funnel while driving revenue across channels and devices.  

"The Kenshoo team is second to none and clearly on a path to building a large market in a rapidly growing industry," said Tom Banahan, managing director of Tenaya Capital. "Kenshoo's superior technology, focus on scale, and commitment to profitability made it a clear choice for Tenaya to form a partnership and lead this round of financing."

"Tenaya has had amazing success with such leaders as Kayak and Zappos and we're humbled to have them as partners," said Yoav Izhar-Prato, co-founder and chief executive officer of Kenshoo. "The Tenaya team shares our core values around integrity and tenacity so it was a natural cultural fit. We look forward to tapping their resources and expertise to bring even more value for our clients, employees, and shareholders."

Kenshoo has a long track record with delivering first-to-market innovations in search marketing including seamless website tracking, transparent portfolio bid optimization, back-end inventory synchronization, local mass-management and a cross-channel desktop editor. The agile development pace has continued in 2012, with Kenshoo being the first search marketing technology platform to release support for Google Product Listing Ads, integration with leading Search Engine Optimization platforms, bid automation for Baidu and portfolio optimization for Yahoo! Japan.

Meanwhile, Kenshoo Social is one of only two companies in the world recently designated as a Facebook Strategic Preferred Marketing Developer with access to the Facebook Exchange. Now serving more than one billion Facebook ads each day, Kenshoo Social helps marketers achieve brand awareness and engagement goals with superior targeting and optimization tools. This offering complements the intent-driven nature of search to help marketers capture customers throughout the purchase cycle and close the loop on cross-channel reporting and attribution through the Kenshoo Universal Platform.

"Kenshoo has always been motivated by creating unique solutions to marketing problems that others found too hard to tackle," added Izhar-Prato. "With nearly half of the Fortune 50 and all 10 top global ad agency networks using Kenshoo, our clients have always pushed us to deliver scalable technology that keeps them on the cutting edge. We will continue to push the boundaries of math and automation to deliver long-term success for our clients."

Industry projections forecast continued growth going forward for Kenshoo's addressable market. The IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report states that online advertising revenues for the first half of 2012 climbed to an all-time high of $17 billion, a 14 percent increase year-over-year. Also, in Forrester's most recent US Interactive Marketing Forecasts report, Forrester Research Vice President, Principal Analyst Shar VanBoskirk reports that advertisers will spend $77 billion on interactive marketing by 2016 with search marketing commanding 44 percent of that spend and social media growing at a 26 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over a five-year period.^[1]

"Kenshoo is an indispensable, independent control system for any marketer who wants to be certain that every cent of an advertising budget is wisely used to reach customers via search engines, social networks and other vital touch points," added Michael Moritz, Chairman at Sequoia Capital.

About Kenshoo

Kenshoo is a digital marketing software company that engineers technology solutions for search marketing, social media and online advertising. Brands, agencies and marketing providers use Kenshoo Enterprise, Kenshoo Local and Kenshoo Social to direct more than $25 billion in annual client sales revenue. The Kenshoo Universal Platform delivers automation, intelligence, integration and scale to make better marketing investments. With campaigns running in more than 190 countries for nearly half of the Fortune 50 and all 10 top global ad agency networks, Kenshoo clients include CareerBuilder, Expedia, Facebook, KAYAK, Havas Digital, Hitwise, iREP, John Lewis, LendingTree, Resolution Media, Sears, Starcom MediaVest Group, Tesco, Travelocity, Walgreens, and Zappos. Kenshoo has 16 international locations and is backed by Sequoia Capital, Arts Alliance and Tenaya Capital. Please visit http://www.Kenshoo.com for more information.

Kenshoo is a trademark of Kenshoo Ltd. Other company and brand names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 

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1. US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2011 To 2016, Forrester Research, Inc., August 24, 2011

SOURCE Kenshoo

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