Plaxo Doubles Private Funding
Secure Contact Management Start-up Receives Follow-on Funding from Sequoia Capital; Internet distribution veteran Ram Shriram Joins Plaxo Board of Directors
February 18, 2003 (MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.) - Plaxo Inc., which provides a simple and secure way to keep all your contact information up-to-date and complete, announced today an additional $1.8 million in funding, again led by Sequoia Capital. At the same time, Plaxo announced the addition of former Amazon and Netscape executive Ram Shriram to its board of directors.
Led by Napster co-founder Sean Parker, Plaxo has now raised a total of $3.8 million since its founding in 2001. This total includes Sequoia Capital's initial investment of $1.8 million and $200,000 from angel investors in February 2002. The company launched its flagship contact management product, Plaxo Contacts, as a beta version in November.
"With Plaxo Contacts, individuals have found a secure, easy and automatic way to prevent lost or outdated contact information for Microsoft Outlook users," Parker said. "As one of our earliest investors, Sequoia has always seen the potential of Plaxo and the continued support will help ensure we are able to improve and grow the service."
"As with our other investments," said Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital partner, "Plaxo provides a simple solution to a complex problem — staying in touch in today's fast-paced world — that can be widely adopted by millions of people."
Joining Moritz and former Yahoo! president and CEO Tim Koogle on the Plaxo board is Ram Shriram, a former Amazon and Netscape executive. Shriram will assist Plaxo in expanding its service quickly and efficiently, something he accomplished at both Amazon and Netscape.
"I look forward to leveraging my experience with this promising young company," Shriram said. "Plaxo, with its outstanding development team, investors and board of directors, has created a self-explanatory and simple-to-use product that will have great customer adoption."
While at Amazon, Shriram grew the customer base from 3 to 11 million, and had more than 300,000 sites linking to Amazon.com as part of its Associates Program. He was also a member of the Netscape executive team, where he built relationships with partners worldwide to build market share and revenue momentum.
It is estimated that half of the contact information in people's address books is outdated or incomplete. According to the U.S. Postal Service, 37 million families and individuals and 2.4 million businesses in the United States move every year. And a third of all email addresses change annually, as estimated by research firm NFO WorldGroup.
Plaxo Contacts works with PDAs and other devices that synchronize with Microsoft Outlook. It has plans to be compatible with Microsoft Outlook Express and other PIM software in the near future.
ABOUT PLAXO
Plaxo is a company that eliminates the frustration, wasted time and lost opportunities caused by missing or inaccurate contact information for friends, family and colleagues. Plaxo Contacts, the company's flagship product, is the easiest and most effective way for individuals to securely update, maintain and access their contact lists. Plaxo Contacts is accessible anytime via the Web and works closely with Microsoft Outlook.The company was founded by Sean Parker, also co-founder of Napster, and two Stanford engineers Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring. Based in Mountain View, Calif., Plaxo is privately held and backed by Sequoia Capital.
For more information about Plaxo, visit the company's web site at www.plaxo.com.
About Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital provides venture capital funding to founders of startups who want to turn business ideas into companies. As the "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs", Sequoia Capital's Partners have worked with innovators such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Dan Warmenhoven of Network Appliance, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Jen-Hsun Huang of nVIDIA, Michael Marks of Flextronics, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube and Dominic Orr and Keerti Melkote of Aruba Wireless Networks. To learn more about Sequoia Capital visit www.sequoiacap.com.
Contact:
Michael Moritz
SEQUOIA CAPITAL
moritz@sequoiacap.com
