EMERYVILLE, Calif., April 3, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Yardbarker, the
rapidly growing online sports community and branded vertical ad network,
announced today that it has closed a $6 million Series B round of
financing.
Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) led the round, and was joined by existing
investors Russ Siegelman, Ronnie Lott (via SC Investments Consulting), Jarl
Mohn, Labrador Ventures, Baseline Ventures, and others. As part of the
funding, Josh Stein, Managing Director at DFJ, will join Yardbarker's Board
of Directors. Yardbarker plans to use the funds to expand its engineering
and sales teams.
Yardbarker's growth over the past 12 months has been dramatic, reaching
more than six million unique users in February across 300 independent
sports sites in the Yardbarker Network. The company has also experienced a
surge in the popularity of Yardbarker.com, a first-of-its-kind community of
sports fans and celebrity athlete bloggers, including superstars Donovan
McNabb, Baron Davis, Dontrelle Willis, and Greg Oden. The network and site
have proven to be an attractive mix for advertisers who understand that the
next generation of sports fans is increasingly spending more time on blogs
than on mainstream sports sites. Current advertising clients include 2K
Sports, vitaminwater, and Sony PlayStation, among other major brands.
"Draper Fisher Jurvetson's track record in the consumer Internet space
is impressive, and their experience working with vertical media networks
like Glam will be very valuable to us," Yardbarker Co-Founder and CEO Pete
Vlastelica said. "We are focused on giving our users more and more ways to
interact with each other; delivering the most valuable Network experience
imaginable to a rapidly-growing roster of independent sports sites; and
delivering value to the brands that are interested in reaching our audience
of passionate sports fans. DFJ believes in our vision, and we're thrilled
to be working with them."
"Yardbarker is one of the most exciting companies in the emerging new
media landscape," said Josh Stein, Managing Director of DFJ. "They are
uniquely positioned in a dynamic category with both exciting original
content and a strong network of highly targeted social media. We believe
Yardbarker has a disruptive business model that will enable them to thrive
and become a major player in sports media."
ABOUT YARDBARKER
Yardbarker is the web's most interactive sports media network.
Yardbarker.com, the hub of the network, pulls together original content
from top athletes such as Donovan McNabb and Carmelo Anthony, along with
articles, photos, links, and videos submitted by passionate fans, and gives
members more ways to interact with each other than any other major sports
site. The Yardbarker Network, which includes 300 high-quality sports blogs
and other independent sites, provides Yardbarker's users with a broad array
of content that fuels a never-ending discussion.
ABOUT DRAPER FISHER JURVETSON
Draper Fisher Jurvetson ("DFJ") is a leading venture capital firm with
global presence through a network of partner funds, with offices in more
than 33 cities around the world and more than $5.7 billion in capital
commitments. DFJ's mission is to identify, serve and provide capital for
extraordinary entrepreneurs anywhere who are determined to change the
world. Over the past twenty years, DFJ has been proud to back over 550
companies across many sectors including such industry changing catalysts as
Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), EnerNOC
(ENOC), athenahealth (ATHN), Focus Media (FMCN), Mobile 365 (acquired by
Sybase), xFire (acquired by Viacom), United Online (UNTD), Overture
(acquired by YHOO), Interwoven (IWOV), Four11 (acquired by YHOO), and
Parametric (PMTC).
SOURCE Yardbarker
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