Click Forensics Secures $5 Million in Series A Funding

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Click Forensics™, Inc., creator of the search advertising industry’s largest independent click fraud reporting service – the Click Fraud Network™ (www.JoinTheNetwork.com), today announced that it has secured $5 million in series A funding. The funding round was led by Austin Ventures with participation from Silicon Valley-based Shasta Ventures. The capital infusion will be used by Click Forensics to expand marketing and development of its industry-leading click quality monitoring and mitigation solutions for online advertisers. In addition to the funding news, Click Forensics also announced that it will relocate its corporate headquarters to Austin, Texas.

“As the multi-billion dollar market for online advertising continues to grow at a rapid pace, the need to verify the validity and quality of pay-per-click advertising has become paramount for hundreds of thousands of advertisers”

“As the multi-billion dollar market for online advertising continues to grow at a rapid pace, the need to verify the validity and quality of pay-per-click advertising has become paramount for hundreds of thousands of advertisers,” said Thomas Ball, venture partner for Austin Ventures. “Click Forensics is a pioneer in the development of click fraud detection and mitigation solutions that help advertisers significantly improve the ROI of their online campaigns. We look forward to working with this talented team as they collaborate with advertisers, search engines and industry leaders to bring the problem of click fraud under control.”

In early 2006, Click Forensics became the first industry source for statistically significant information on industry click fraud rates when it created the Click Fraud Index. The Click Fraud Index publishes data collected from the Click Fraud Network (www.ClickFraudNetwork.com), the industry’s first independent third-party click fraud detection service dedicated to helping companies more accurately monitor their online advertising campaigns for pay-per-click (PPC) fraud. The service is unique in that it monitors online campaigns for click fraud by correlating data collected from search provider campaigns and the advertisers’ own web sites – providing the industry’s most accurate view of click fraud to date.

“The problem of click fraud remains one of the top threats to the future of the online pay-per-click advertising industry,” said Tom Cuthbert, president and CEO of Click Forensics. “With our technology and service offerings and the support of our investors, advertising partners and top search engines, we believe we can work together to ensure that advertisers get what they pay for.”

About Austin Ventures

Austin Ventures has been working with talented entrepreneurs to build valuable companies since 1979. With $3 billion under management, AV is the most active venture capital firm in Texas, and one of the most established in the nation. With a focus on business services, information services, computer and communications hardware, and enterprise software, Austin Ventures invests at all stages of company development, from $100,000 “planned experiments” to $50+ million investments in management buyouts. Visit www.austinventures.com for more information.

About Shasta Ventures

Shasta Ventures is a venture capital firm formed by three venture capital veterans from leading venture firms. Located in Menlo Park, CA, Shasta Ventures manages a $210 million venture capital fund to invest in early stage technology companies serving consumer and enterprise customers. The fund pursues investment opportunities within the infrastructure, software and technology-enabled service sectors. For more information on Shasta Ventures, please visit www.shastaventures.com.

About Click Forensics, Inc.

Click Forensics, Inc. is the leading provider of third-party technology and services that help online advertisers, agencies and search providers to better identify pay-per-click fraud. The company runs the top independent click fraud detection service in the industry, the Click Fraud Network (www.ClickFraudNetwork.com), which monitors online advertising campaigns for click fraud free of charge. Click Forensics also provides an enterprise-class solution to help advertisers with campaigns of 100,000 clicks or more per month to track click fraud. More information on Click Forensics and its offerings is available at www.ClickForensics.com.

Click Forensics, Click Fraud Index and Click Fraud Network are trademarks of Click Forensics, Inc. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.