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Rho Ventures Leads Round; Name Changes to Tacoda, Inc. 
April 29, 2006 Tacoda, the world's largest behaviorally targeted online advertising service, today announced that it has closed a Series C round of financing. The $12 million round was led by Rho Ventures (www.rho.com), a new investor in the company. The funding will enable Tacoda to continue expanding on the extraordinary success of its behavioral ad network Tacoda Audience Networks™, launched in September 2005. In the past 90 days, the number of sites in the Network has tripled to more than 3,000. The number of monthly unique visitors reached has jumped to 130 million from 85 million. The number of monthly ad impressions has moved above 1 billion from about 300 million. Each week Tacoda runs an average of nearly 80 campaigns compared to less than 40 just 3 months ago. Among the major advertisers who have run campaigns on Tacoda Audience Networks™ behaviorally driven online advertising network designed to give major advertisers targeted reach at a scale required for effective online branding campaigns are: Honda, Panasonic, Sprint Internet, ATT, Bell South, AOL, Capitol One, Delta, Allstate and Western Union. Habib Kairouz, Managing Partner at Rho, will join Tacoda' s Board of Directors, which is being expanded and currently includes Tacoda Co-Founder and CEO Dave Morgan; Curt Viebranz, the company's President; Brad Burnham, Tacoda's Co-Founder and Chairman and a founding partner of Union Square Ventures; Fred Wilson, a founding partner of Union Square Ventures; and Richard W. Levandov, a General Partner with Masthead Venture Partners. "Habib Kairouz, a Board member of iVillage and Waterfront Media, is a seasoned venture investor with considerable experience in the interactive advertising arena," says Mr. Viebranz. "He adds great strength and vision to our Board." "Tacoda has consistently been the first mover and best player in every aspect of behavioral targeting," says Mr. Kairouz. "I am pleased to be part of the team that will continue that innovation and capitalize on the numerous predictions that 2006 and 2007 will be very big years for behavioral targeting as it continues to prove its efficiency in delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time." "The rapid success of Tacoda Audience Networks™ has enabled Tacoda to generate sufficient cash flow to operate the company with very little outside investment," says Tacoda CEO Dave Morgan. "This round will continue to help us become the Internet's largest provider of audience-targeted advertising." "Tacoda leads an industry that is poised for explosive growth," says Kevin Considine, Vice President, National Sales for Cars.com, which is part of Tacoda Audience Networks™. "Advertisers who have tested Tacoda's network model understand how much greater their ROI can be with the right technology helping them reach very well defined target audience. As publishers, we see bigger and better sales for our overall inventory." In April 2004, Tacoda closed its first round of institutional financing, three years after the company's launch in 2001. That $10 million Series B investment was led by Masthead Venture Partners and joined by Union Square Ventures and a number of the company's existing seed and angel investors. In total, Tacoda has raised just over $26 million. The company's 20 angel investors have financed well over 500 early stage investments and include a number of entrepreneurs that have built successful technology companies. Original angel investors included Mr. Burnham, Mr. Wilson, Bob Young, founder of Red Hat; and Jerry Colonna of Flatiron Partners. In an unrelated development, the company changed its named from Tacoda Systems to Tacoda, Inc. "Our business is no longer the individual site or enterprise installation of 'systems' so the change better reflects the course we have set with Tacoda Audience Networks™," says Mr. Morgan. New York-based Tacoda (www.Tacoda.com) is the worlds' largest provider of behaviorally targeted online advertising services. Through Tacoda Audience Networks™, brand advertisers can reach their target audiences on premium sites at substantial scale, and do it simply and cost-effectively while generating powerful, actionable audience insights. By delivering relevant messages to more than 130 million unique users across over 3,000 individual national, regional and vertical websites, Tacoda simplifies behaviorally targeted buys for brand advertisers. Virtually every top 50 online advertiser has run campaigns on Tacoda-enabled websites. Tacoda, AUDIENCE NETWORKS and AUDIENCE MANAGEMENT SERVICES are trademarks of Tacoda Systems, Inc. |
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Copyright ©2007 Rho Capital Partners, Inc.