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EVDB, Inc. Closes Series A Round of Financing
LA JOLLA, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- March 28, 2005 -- EVDB, Inc. announced today that it has completed its Series A round of financing, raising $2.1 million. EVDB, the Events and Venues Database, is developing a collaborative, searchable database and web services platform for event and venue data worldwide. Part search engine, part wiki, part blog, EVDB enables people to find relevant events along with detailed venue information and save them to personal calendars on their desktop or mobile devices. The company premiered its service at the PC Forum conference on March 21, 2005, and plans to launch a public preview beta later this week.
Draper Fisher Jurvetson of Menlo Park, CA led the Series A funding round, along with the participation of the Omidyar Network of Redwood City, CA. The funds will be used to accelerate EVDB's ongoing product development efforts, which are initially focused on building core functionality, web services tools, and expanding its content acquisition capabilities and partnerships.
EVDB also announced it had closed its seed investment round, with investors including Esther Dyson of CNET Networks; Half.com founder Joshua Kopelman; Pyra and Odeo co-founder Evan Williams; Tribe Networks CEO and co-founder Mark Pincus; Dan O'Neill, EVP and CTO of Trusonic, Inc.; and Thomas Sammon, co-founder of PersonaLogic, sold to AOL in 1998.
"We've put together an ideal group of investors for our company," says Brian Dear, founder and CEO of EVDB. "The combination of venture capital from DFJ and Omidyar, as well as backing by select individual investors, all recognized as industry leaders and experts, is a testimony to the value and potential of our business model and technology. These investments will enable EVDB to significantly accelerate the development of its products and services."
Steve Jurvetson, managing partner of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, notes: "It's rare to find a great team with such focused domain expertise pursuing such an enormous opportunity. EVDB is addressing a huge worldwide need, and our investment demonstrates our belief that the company is poised to become the leader in event search services on the Internet. We're thrilled to be partners in this cutting-edge venture."
Esther Dyson, former chairman of EDventure Holdings and editor of CNET Networks' Release 1.0 newsletter, adds: "Right now, event information is messy; you can't search for where your favorite artist will be appearing, or the next conference about space travel in Arizona, or anything interesting in Marina del Rey next Saturday. More than that, I expect EVDB will support uses we can't even dream of, such as competitive intelligence for event planners and hospitality providers, online communities around performers and conferences, event ratings from users...and things we really can't dream of so I can't even list them."
About EVDB, Inc.
Founded in January 2004 by Brian Dear, an experienced Internet entrepreneur, EVDB's mission is to become the leading search engine and web services platform for event and venue data worldwide. EVDB is located in La Jolla, California. To learn more, visit: http://www.evdb.com.
About Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is the leader in seed and early stage venture capital. Since 1985, DFJ has created a global network of affiliated venture funds with over $3 billion in capital commitments and offices in the major technology centers around the world. DFJ has proven expertise in identifying and helping extraordinary entrepreneurs who want to change the world. For more information, visit: www.dfj.com.
About Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network seeks out investments that are "of the people, by the people, for the people." The Network is founded on the simple core belief that every individual has the power to make a difference. We exist for one single purpose: So that more and more people discover their own power to make good things happen. Since June 2004, Omidyar Network has funded efforts in a number of areas: Microfinance, Bottom-up Media, Open Source, Intellectual Property, Voting, Software, and Transparency in Government. As we learn through partnering and investing, our focus areas will continue evolving. To learn more about us and the people we're working with, please visit http://www.omidyar.net.
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