Oodle Raises $11 Million in Funding From JAFCO, Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oodle, the new way to shop with classifieds, announced today that it has raised $11 million in funding from new investor JAFCO Ventures as well as from Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures, both of which led the company’s previous round of financing.

“Classifieds is a very big category and Oodle brings to it an innovative business model, positioning the company to be a true market leader.”

Oodle (www.oodle.com) helps consumers find great deals through classifieds, enabling them to easily search more than 20 million listings from more than 75,000 sources. Oodle has also pioneered a new revenue model for online classified advertising by selling featured listings across Oodle and the Oodle Network, a collection of newspaper, television, yellow page and Internet sites that incorporate Oodle’s classifieds search capabilities.

The company will use the funding to further expand Oodle.com, providing additional features for an even better classifieds shopping experience. In September 2006, Oodle was named as the fastest growing online classifieds site by comScore Media Metrix, boasting a 463 percent growth in traffic from the previous year.

"Since launching the site almost two years ago, we’ve built up a solid, organic following of consumers who find Oodle the best way to hunt for great deals," said Craig Donato, CEO of Oodle. "With this round of financing, we can accelerate our efforts to acquire new users and continue adding exciting new functionality to the service."

With Oodle, users are able to find great deals by searching the freshest, most comprehensive collection of classified listings online. Oodle automatically catalogues every listing (for example, organizing pet listings by breed, gender, color, etc), constantly prunes for spam and provides a set of rich features that enhance the shopping experience for consumers.

Oodle’s innovative shopping features include comparative pricing data, instant alerts and an entertainment calendar. Consumers can browse Oodle’s entertainment calendar to find something to do on a Friday night; use Oodle’s real-time pricing guides to determine the right price for a two-bedroom apartment in their neighborhood; and receive instant Oodle Alerts to jump on great deals the minute they become available.

In addition to changing the way consumers shop using classifieds, Oodle provides a new revenue model for online classified advertising. Millions of consumers use Oodle each month to hunt for great deals both directly on Oodle as well as through the Oodle Network. Advertisers who want to best connect with these users pay to feature their listings across the Oodle Network. Featured listings receive premium placement when they match a users search criteria, and this revenue is shared with partners in the network.

"We are excited to join the Oodle team as an investor,” said Joe Horowitz, Managing Partner at JAFCO. “Classifieds is a very big category and Oodle brings to it an innovative business model, positioning the company to be a true market leader.”

Greylock’s investment in Oodle is led by David Sze. Greylock’s consumer Internet investments include digg, Facebook, LinkedIn and Farecast.

Redpoint’s investment in Oodle is led by Geoff Yang. Geoff’s consumer Internet investments include Ask Jeeves, Excite, MySpace and TiVo.

About Oodle

Oodle (www.oodle.com) provides consumers with a great shopping experience for classifieds. Users search the freshest, most comprehensive collection of classifieds listings with over 20 million listings from more than 75,000 sites across every major category: automotive, real estate, rentals, employment, personals, tickets, pets, services and merchandise.

Oodle also runs the Oodle network, a collection of sites that use Oodle to power their online classifieds. The Oodle Network includes major newspapers such as the Washington Post and San Diego Union Tribune; business directory providers such as Local.com and Yell.com; television broadcast such as WTKR (Norfolk) and KLAS (Las Vegas); and large Internet sites such as Lycos. To be included in the Oodle index or to learn more about the Oodle Network, please contact [e-mail].

About Greylock Partners

Founded in 1965, Greylock Partners is one of the world's leading venture capital firms. Over the past 41 years, Greylock has funded and helped build several hundred successful companies. The Greylock approach uniquely puts the entrepreneur first, with Greylock working as an "invited guest" in a highly supportive yet consultative way to help entrepreneurs build market-leading companies. Companies Greylock has funded include Ascend Communications, CheckFree, Continental Cable, Decru, DoubleClick, Internet Security Systems, Ikanos, Legato, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Openwave, Red Hat, RightNow Technologies, Tellabs, Trilogy and Wily Technology. Greylock's offices are located in Silicon Valley, the Boston area and Israel. For more information, please visit www.greylock.com.

About Redpoint Ventures

Redpoint Ventures focuses on partnering with and funding innovative companies that have the potential to define, lead, and change industries. Redpoint partners have many decades of experience and success in technology investing; combined with this foundation, the firm is able to leverage a thriving network of entrepreneurs, partners, and industry experts to accelerate building market-leading companies. Redpoint (www.redpoint.com) was founded in 1999 by partners from two of the top firms in the venture capital industry and currently has over $2 billion under management. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA with offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai, China.

About JAFCO Ventures

Based in Palo Alto, California, JAFCO Ventures is an independent venture capital partnership focused on companies that are emerging leaders in the software, semiconductor and communications industries. JAFCO Ventures was formed in 2003 and currently manages $200 million in capital. The fund's charter is to invest in venture opportunities with true "breakout" potential where JAFCO Ventures can meaningfully add value with capital, the experience of seasoned venture capital investors, and the deployment of our Asia business development (ABD) team. The role of the ABD team is to help JAFCO’s portfolio companies generate revenue from customers in Japan and other parts of Asia. For more information, visit www.jafco.com.