WideOrbit Raises Series C

WideOrbit Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of sales, traffic and billing software for the global media market, has raised $14.5 million in Series C funding. Participants include Khosla Ventures, Greycroft Partners and Hearst Ventures. VentureWire says that the company already has term sheets out on a follow-on round that could net up to $50 million.

PRESS RELEASE

WideOrbit Inc. continues its aggressive growth path by securing funding from three of the most pre-eminent venture capital firms- Khosla Ventures, Greycroft Partners and Hearst Ventures, the venture arm of the Hearst Corporation- one of the largest media companies in the world. In addition, WideOrbit announced that two high profile industry veterans have joined the company. Steve Sommer joins as Chief Marketing Officer, where he is responsible for driving overall product strategy, product roadmaps, and worldwide marketing efforts. Igor Tsyganskiy joins as Senior Vice President of Engineering. Igor is working to accelerate the development of new WideOrbit products, the company’s entrance into new markets and its international expansion.

WideOrbit drives the business of Advertising by providing Sales, Traffic and Billing software solutions for the global media industry. WideOrbit’s core software product, WO Traffic, manages more than $10 Billion dollars in advertising revenue and is currently implemented by more than 900 television stations, radio stations, and cable networks, as well as managing advertising for movie theaters, mobile devices, and digital display networks.

Located on opposite coasts, Khosla Ventures and Greycroft are two of the most sought after venture capital firms. Khosla Ventures was formed in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, who was formerly a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins and Founder of Sun Microsystems. Khosla has been labeled the #1 VC by Forbes. Founded in 2001, Greycroft was created by Alan Patricof, Founder of Apax Partners, Worldwide, LP, one of the world’s leading private equity firms. Greycroft Partners is a venture capital partnership formed to invest in promising digital media companies, including both business- and consumer-focused ventures.

“WideOrbit has created one of the most unique and defensible businesses in advertising. As online and offline advertising converges, we expect WideOrbit’s preeminent position to create tremendous value for their clients and investors,” stated David Weiden of Khosla Ventures and member of WideOrbit’s Board of Directors.

“WideOrbit has already established a leadership position in the advertising traffic management market, and is developing exciting new applications that will have a definitive impact on the media industry,” said Dana Settle, of Greycroft Partners.

Hearst Ventures, one of WideOrbit’s existing investors, has also provided additional funding as part of this investment round.

“It’s a great compliment to receive funding from three such highly regarded investors. This additional funding will support our efforts to aggressively develop new software solutions to benefit our customers and allow us to continue to expand both domestically and in international markets,” stated Eric Mathewson, Founder and CEO of WideOrbit.

New Executives

With a background predominantly in enterprise software, Steve Sommer brings more than 25 years of experience in marketing and business development to the WideOrbit team. He comes to WideOrbit most recently from SuccessFactors, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand performance and talent management applications, where he was Vice President of Global Marketing.

Prior to SuccessFactors, Steve was SVP Marketing & Business Development at ArcSight, a provider of enterprise security management software, and SVP Marketing & Business Development for Portal Software, a provider of customer management and billing software for the internet and telecom industries. Sommer was also the vice president of worldwide marketing for Informix, the enterprise database company. Steve has also worked for such prestigious companies as Procter & Gamble, a leading consumer packaged goods company, and McKinsey & Company, Inc, a leading management consulting firm.

Igor Tsyganskiy comes to WideOrbit from SAP where he spent more than a decade, and most recently held the position as Head of the Advanced Technology Group. Igor will work closely with WideOrbit’s development teams where he will apply his expertise in business process automation and optimization, enterprise system design, analytics and decision control systems, and internet security and traffic analysis. Igor will be aggressively growing WideOrbit’s product development team in order to support its rapidly expanding customer base, ensure continued industry-leading customer satisfaction, and deliver new products based on the company’s strategic goals. Previously, Igor was a co-founder of Tealeaf, a San Francisco-based software company that provides visibility, insight, and answers for companies doing business online.

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About WideOrbit

WideOrbit is the largest Traffic, Sales and Billing software in North America and is growing rapidly globally. WideOrbit manages the advertising sales process for television stations, radio stations, cable networks, cable interconnects, mobile video, movie theatres and digital display networks.

WideOrbit’s solutions help maximize revenue and enhance operational efficiencies.  The company’s core WO Traffic software is a scalable, modern, Windows-based solution that provides a complete workflow in the management of advertising infrastructure from the acceptance of an advertising order to the receipt of an invoice.  WO Traffic provides centralized management of traffic and reporting from one location for multi-station groups, and tracks market history and conditions to help clients make the most appropriate pricing decisions. WO Traffic also offers revolutionary, patent pending, inventory and yield management tools.  WideOrbit’s client list includes: Hearst-Argyle Television, Gannett, The New York Times, NBC, Telemundo, Meredith Corporation, Madison Square Garden, Transit TV, Scripps Television Group, and Qualcomm/MediaFlo.

WideOrbit was founded in 1999 and has offices in San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and London, England.