WideOrbit Raises $10 Million in Expansion Funding, Led by Mayfield Fund

Business Wire, Oct 28, 2008

WideOrbit Grows to Serve 1,200 TV Stations and Networks; Announces New Board Members

SAN FRANCISCO -- WideOrbit, the leader in Revenue Management systems for the Global Media industry, has received $10 million in growth financing. The series was led by Mayfield Fund, of Menlo Park, California. Other investors include Khosla Ventures, Greycroft Partners and the Hearst Corporation, who have contributed to WideOrbit's prior rounds of funding. WideOrbit will focus the funds on investing more aggressively in new products and services for their global clients.

WideOrbit drives the business of Advertising by providing Sales, Traffic and Billing software solutions for the global media industry. WideOrbit's core software product, WO Traffic, manages more than $12 Billion dollars in advertising revenue and is currently implemented by more than 1,200 television stations, radio stations, and cable networks, as well as managing advertising for movie theaters, mobile devices, and digital display networks. WideOrbit software manages the entire business of a sell-side media entity, from receipt of an advertising order, scheduling the programming, optimizing the placement of the commercials, to generating an invoice and managing credit and collections.

"WideOrbit clearly demonstrates the three important success criteria for enterprise companies -- a large unaddressed market, a must-have solution and business model innovation," said Navin Chaddha, Managing Director of Mayfield Fund. "When you combine that with the company's demonstrated customer adoption and a team with deep domain expertise and a commitment to capital efficiency, this was an easy investment decision for us."

WideOrbit clients range from Gannett, Hearst, McGraw Hill, Meredith, NBC, Telemundo, to the Yankees, the Red Sox, Fox Sports Net as well as Qualcomm/MediaFLO, Madison Square Garden and Transit TV. WideOrbit has international presence in many countries including India, Canada, Dubai, the UK, Greece and Mexico.

"We are very excited to have Mayfield Fund join our group of financial investors and we look forward to leveraging their tremendous expertise to further expand our business," said Eric Mathewson, Founder and CEO of WideOrbit. "Our clients rely upon WideOrbit to be a stable, reliable partner to drive excellence in their business operations. This incremental funding enables us to invest aggressively into our core systems to drive client capabilities and revenue."

In conjunction with this expansion financing, WideOrbit has added members from the Mayfield Fund to its Board of Directors. Navin Chaddha, Managing Director of Mayfield Fund, has joined the WideOrbit Board of Directors and Rajeev Batra, Venture Partner with Mayfield Fund, will be a Board Observer.

About WideOrbit

WideOrbit provides advertising infrastructure that empowers media companies anywhere in the world to improve yield management and maximize advertising revenue. WideOrbit delivers flexible software solutions that address the needs of a wide range of advertising mediums today and in the future. WideOrbit simplifies and automates the sales, traffic and billing of advertising with proven software solutions and provides customers with unprecedented control and visibility into their advertising inventory across a variety of ad mediums.

WideOrbit manages the advertising sales process for television stations, radio stations, cable networks, cable interconnects, mobile video, movie theaters and digital display networks. WideOrbit's client list includes: NBC, Telemundo, Hearst-Argyle Television, Gannett, Meredith Corporation, Madison Square Garden, Transit TV, Scripps Television Group, and Qualcomm/MediaFlo.

WideOrbit was founded in 1999 and has offices in San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and London, England.

About Mayfield Fund

Mayfield Fund provides "venture capital with impact" by partnering with exceptional individuals to create industry-leading companies in the US, China and India. The firm has over $2.8 billion under management and local teams in the U.S., China and India. Since its founding in 1969, Mayfield has raised 13 funds for the U.S., invested in more than 500 companies, taken more than 100 public, and exited nearly 100 others through mergers and acquisitions.

About Khosla Ventures

Khosla Ventures offers venture assistance, strategic advice and capital to entrepreneurs. The firm helps entrepreneurs extend the potential of their ideas in both traditional venture areas like the Internet, computing, mobile, and silicon technology arenas but also supports breakthrough scientific work in clean technology areas such as bio-refineries for energy and bioplastics, solar, battery and other environmentally friendly technologies. Vinod Khosla was formerly a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins and founder of Sun Microsystems.

About Greycroft Partners

Greycroft Partners is a venture capital partnership formed to invest in promising digital media companies, including both business and consumer-focused ventures. The firm's $75 million fund includes participation from leading corporate executives around the world.