Peer39 Raises $10.5 Million in Series C Financing

Business Wire, June 02, 2009

Funding to fuel market leadership and semantic technology innovation

NEW YORK -- Peer39 (www.Peer39.com), the leading online semantic advertising company, today announced that it has closed a $10.5 million round in Series C funding. Evergreen Venture Partners led the round, joining existing investors including Canaan Partners, Dawntreader Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, and JP Morgan, bringing the total financing raised by the company to over $22 million to date.

Peer39 will use the funding to accelerate business development and sales, as well as further development of its semantic advertising technology platform, which enables publishers to increase revenues from their web sites.

"By working with the world's leading publishers, Peer39 has become the market leader in semantic advertising solutions. We are delighted to welcome Evergreen Venture Partners as a new financial partner," said Amiad Solomon, CEO of Peer39. "With this financial commitment, we will expand our US sales presence and continue to develop our proprietary technology, thus helping publishers get higher returns from their online content while enabling advertisers to confidently protect their brands."

"Semantics is the next wave of the Internet and semantic targeting and advertising is the first major implementation of semantic technologies on the web. Peer39 is the market leader in this new and exciting market," said Erez Shachar of Evergreen Venture Partners, who will be joining the Board of Directors. "After extensive research, seeing the technology in action, and talking to Peer39’s impressive list of top-tier publishers we became convinced that Peer39 presents by far the most exciting opportunity of companies in the semantics space. I am proud to join Peer39 as investor and member of the board of directors."

"Since our initial investment in Peer39 in 2007, the company has achieved market leadership by building cutting-edge technology, a compelling business model, and a stellar executive team,” said Warren Lee, Venture Partner, Canaan Partners. “We are excited to continue supporting Peer39 as it establishes itself as the leader of semantic advertising technologies."

About Peer39:

Founded in 2006, Peer39 is creating the next generation online advertising and content monetization platform. Based on natural language processing and machine learning, its patented algorithms increase the value on online content by understanding page meaning and sentiment, matching the most relevant/effective brand safe display and text advertising. Headquartered in NYC, Peer39 maintains an R&D center in Israel, conducting primary research in semantic web technologies. Peer39 was named by MIT’s Technology Review as one of “Ten Web Startups to Watch” and included on AlwaysOn East 100 Top Private Companies List in 2009. For more information, please visit www.Peer39.com.

About Evergreen Venture Partners:

Evergreen Venture Partners was established in 1987 as one of Israel’s first venture capital firms. Evergreen invests in early-stage Israeli and Israel-related companies in the following fields: software, internet & media, communications and healthcare. Evergreen’s $650 million of venture capital funds under management represents one of the largest portfolios in Israel with investments in over 120 technology start-ups. Evergreen has exited successfully 35 portfolio companies through IPOs and acquisitions. Some of these companies include Traiana, Colbar, Identify, BigBand, P-Cube, Actona, Backweb, Exalink, Radvision and Radware. Evergreen is currently investing from its fifth generation fund, Evergreen V, a $200M fund. For more information, please visit www.evergreen.co.il.

About Canaan Partners:

Canaan Partners invests in visionary entrepreneurs and provides them the networks, insights and operational guidance required to build high-performance technology and healthcare companies. For 20 years, they have taken an active and committed role in the companies in which they invest, and have completed more than 72 mergers and acquisitions and 53 IPOs. With $3 billion under management and a worldwide footprint, the firm’s technology team is committed to catalyzing the growth of innovative companies in the digital media, communications & mobility, enterprise and clean tech industries. Among its successes are Acme Packet, Amicus Therapeutics, Cerexa Inc., CommerceOne, DexCom Inc., DoubleClick, Intralinks, Match.com, SuccessFactors and WebLoyalty. Other Canaan investments include Active Networks, AdvancedBioHealing, BharatMatrimony, BiPar Sciences, Blurb, Chimerix, Inc., N-trig, Prime Sense, ReVision Optics, Inc., Transoma Medical, Inc, Tremor Media and Xirrus. Canaan has offices in California, Connecticut, India and Israel. For more information visit www.canaan.com.