Kosmix Lands $20 Million in Financing

Business Wire, Dec 9, 2008

Time Warner Leads Round; Kosmix Unveils New Guide to the Web for Exploration and Discovery

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Kosmix[TM] today announced it has landed $20 million in financing to accelerate growth, distribution and consumer reach worldwide. The latest round was led by Time Warner, with existing investors Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Dag Ventures also participating. In addition, Kosmix enlisted industry veteran and former Chairman and CEO of Motorola, Ed Zander, as a private investor and advisor to the company. He joins existing investors Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and Bill Miller of Legg Mason. To date, Kosmix has raised $55 million.

Today Kosmix also introduced a beta version of www.kosmix.com, a guide to the Web. Kosmix organizes the Internet by topic, creating a better way to navigate the Web. Consumers start at Kosmix to explore any topic, browse subjects that interest them and discover something new online. Any query -- from "Chocolate Cake" to "San Francisco 49ers" to "Foo Fighters" -- delivers a rich, dashboard-style page filled with immersive content and new connections. The site offers a 360 degree view of any topic and presents a unique mix of the best content on the Web, including news, videos, reviews, images, opinions and communities.

With eleven million unique visits per month, users start at Kosmix sites to gain access to content that is meaningful to them. In addition to Kosmix.com, Kosmix owns and operates RightHealth, a health site that has demonstrated strong growth in traffic and revenue. The site, a proof-of-concept for the Kosmix.com model, is the #2 most visited health site online (Hitwise) and has increased over 156% in user traffic year-over-year (ComScore).

"At Kosmix, our mission is to connect people with the information that makes a difference in their lives," said Venky Harinarayan, co-founder of Kosmix. "As the Internet evolves, consumers want to explore everything the online world has to offer. We created Kosmix to be their guide. Our track record and new funding puts us in a strong position to offer millions of consumers a new direction in interacting with the Web."

"Kosmix's technology and the company's innovations around the traditional online publishing model could represent a paradigm shift in how targeted content is delivered to consumers. As such, Kosmix could be an important strategic partner to many divisions of Time Warner," said Rachel Lam, senior vice president and group managing director of Time Warner Investments. "Kosmix's management team is at the forefront of a new online business model, one that goes beyond banner ads to reach consumers at the moment when they are most receptive and engaged, and importantly, one that should continue to generate strong revenue growth, even in today's challenging economic environment."

"The Internet is now 15 years old and has become a daily part of our lives. As the Internet evolves, we will find new ways of navigating the Web to make the experience more meaningful and relevant to us as individuals," said Ed Zander. "Kosmix has the talent, team and track record, and the market opportunity to build a powerful franchise, placing it in the top echelons of Internet companies built for the long term."

"Kosmix has created a new paradigm for organizing the Web's information, and represents an important evolution in the way we browse the Internet," said Jonathan Miller, former CEO of AOL and Kosmix board member. "This paradigm will accelerate new advertising models, connecting companies with consumers at the exact moment when they are most receptive to exploring and discovering content."

At the core of Kosmix's technology is a sophisticated categorization engine, in development over the last four years. The Kosmix technology scours billions of Web pages and structured data points to aggregate, categorize, and return content specifically related to a user's query. Kosmix's algorithm automatically arranges each set of unique results into a magazine-style dashboard of relevant news, images, videos, communities, reviews, expert opinions, shopping tools, and widgets, with links to explore each sub-topic in more detail.

About Time Warner Investments

The Time Warner Investments group targets non-control strategic investments that have a clear impact on Time Warner's divisional operations and directly enhance the Company's ability to meet specific strategic goals. Time Warner Inc. is a leading media and entertainment company, whose businesses include interactive services, cable systems, filmed entertainment, television networks and publishing. For more information, please visit: www.timewarnerinvestments.com.

About Kosmix

Kosmix is the definitive guide to the Web, allowing consumers to explore and discover any topic of interest to them. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Kosmix was founded by Internet pioneers Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, and is funded by Time Warner Investments, Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Dag Ventures, as well as private investors. For more information, visit www.kosmix.com.