Insider Pages Announces Secures $8.5 Million in Funding
Local Search Engine Insider Pages Announces Relocation to Redwood Shores, CA and Investment by Sequoia Capital, Softbank Capital and Idealab
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 27, 2006–Local search engine Insider Pages, “the Yellow Pages Written by Friends,” announced today that the company will be relocating to Redwood Shores, CA from Pasadena, CA in order to merge all of the company’s operations into one location. In addition, the company also announced that it has received $8.5 million in venture funding, led by Sequoia Capital and Softbank Capital, with additional participation from founding investor Idealab.
“This move will strengthen our rapidly growing company by allowing us to have all of our operations in a single location,” said Stu MacFarlane, CEO. “In addition we will benefit from being close to some of our large partners in the search community and from our ability to recruit in Silicon Valley, one of the best talent pools in the world. We look forward to expanding our team to help more people find great local recommendations for beauty salons, dentists, auto mechanics, spas, pediatricians, preschools, attorneys, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and more.”
Between them, Insider Pages’ three investors are responsible for funding Google, Yahoo!, and Overture (now Yahoo Search Marketing) among many other search related companies. Sequoia’s Roelof Botha and Softbank’s Eric Hippeau have joined the company’s board of directors.
“Insider Pages creates an easy way for people to share recommendations with their neighbors and friends to help them find great local merchants,” said Roelof Botha, managing director, Sequoia Capital. “The Insider Pages reviewer community has posted almost one million reviews for merchants across the country. The site’s millions of monthly visitors are a testament to how beneficial this content is to people trying to find the right kennel, auto glass installer and other local services.”
“Local search is a multi-billion dollar opportunity,” said Eric Hippeau, managing partner, Softbank Capital. “Insider Pages has found a unique way to combine word-of-mouth advertising and pay per call marketing to create a fantastic program for small businesses to market themselves on the Web. In a very short period, the company has built up one of the largest bases of truly local pay per call advertisers in the world, and is now generating a great deal of value for its clients and partners.”
“This is a tremendous opportunity to establish Insider Pages as a major player in local search,” said MacFarlane. “Our new investment partners bring an incredible depth of knowledge of what it takes to build a successful online search business and we’re excited to leverage that expertise and experience.”
About Sequoia Capital
Since 1972, Sequoia Capital has provided startup venture capital for smart people who want to turn ideas into companies. As the “Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs,” Sequoia Capital’s partners have worked with innovators such as Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Gaurav Garg of Redback Networks, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Dan Warmenhoven of Network Appliance, Max Levchin and Peter Thiel of PayPal (eBay), T.J. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor, Lou Tomasetta of Vitesse Semiconductor, Steve Jobs of Apple Computer and Larry Ellison of Oracle. The companies funded by Sequoia Capital now account for about 10 percent of the value of NASDAQ. To learn more about Sequoia Capital visit www.sequoiacap.com.
About SoftBank Capital
SoftBank Capital is an independent venture capital firm focused on high-growth technology-based businesses benefiting from the rapid deployment and adoption of broadband and mobile technologies. Through its current fund, SoftBank Capital Technology Fund III L.P., the firm has invested to-date in Anystream, Beliefnet, Insider Pages, LiteScape Technologies, Nellymoser, The NewsMarket, Perpetual Entertainment and Thumbplay.
About Idealab
Idealab’s mission is to create and operate pioneering technology companies. Founded in 1996 by entrepreneur Bill Gross, Idealab provides a broad range of operational support to its companies, allowing the operating company management teams to focus on getting to market quickly and cost-effectively, and to take advantage of the serial start-up experience of the Idealab team. Bill Gross and Idealab have founded companies such as Overture Services, Inc., CitySearch and Picasa. Current operating companies are providing innovative technology solutions in software, search, wireless and alternative energy fields. Additional information can be found at www.idealab.com.
About Insider Pages
Insider Pages is a local search engine/online yellow pages built around the concept that the best way to find a local business is through a personal recommendation. Users of the site have created over 500,000 customer reviews of local businesses in categories ranging from dentists, doctors and hairstylists to plumbers, realtors and restaurants. The company has been a pioneer of the pay per phone call advertising model for thousands of small businesses from hairstylists to mortgage brokers. The company has advertising syndication partnerships with several leading local search services. The company was founded in 2004 by Idealab and is located in Redwood Shores, CA. For more information on Insider Pages or customer or advertiser testimonials, please visit www.insiderpages.com.