First Product Will Use Israeli Developed Technology for Semantic Web Based
Information Discovery
TEL AVIV, Israel, and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ --
SemantiNet(TM), Ltd. -- a pre-launch company that has developed software
enabling the discovery of new information as part of the natural browsing
experience -- today announced it has secured $3.4M in Series A funding. In
addition, the company has opened a new San Francisco sales and marketing
office to support its upcoming worldwide product launch in late September
of 2008. R&D remains based in Tel Aviv, with technology development based
on extensive experience gained by the key engineers in the Israeli Army
elite R&D unit.
The Series A round is a combination of investments from Israel's
leading venture capital fund with several renowned private investors who
have recognized the unique technology behind SemantiNet's upcoming product
-- as well as its inherent value proposition. Series A investors include:
-- Giza Venture Capital established in 1992, is a pioneer investor in
seed and early-stage technology companies. Giza currently manages four
funds totaling $500 million. Giza has invested in 87 companies in the
sectors of Communications, IT, Software, Life Sciences, Media, Internet,
Gaming & Entertainment, with 32 exits.
-- Sir Ronald Cohen is one of the world's leading private-equity
investors. At the age of 26, he co-founded the firm that became Apax
Partners, the largest global private-equity firm based in Europe with an
impressive investment record -- more than $20 billion under management. Sir
Cohen was also the lead investor in Autonomy(R) Corporation plc (LSE: AU.
or AU.L) the company spearheading the meaning-based computing movement. A
recipient of the British Venture Capital Association's Hall of Fame award
and the Harvard Business School's Alumni Achievement Award, he is also an
honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and a member of the Board of
Overseers of Harvard College.
-- Dr. Joseph 'Yossi' Vardi is one of Israel's high-tech legends --
several companies Dr Vardi co-founded became some of the country's largest
and most successful public firms. Dr Vardi was also the founding investor
and former chairman of Mirabilis(TM), Ltd., the creator of the highly
popular instant messaging program ICQ(R). ICQ pioneered the instant
messaging phenomenon and was one of the most successful and popular
Internet products of all time, with close to 400 million downloads. The
company was acquired by AOL(R) and he is now a strategic adviser to both
AOL and Amazon(R).
-- Mr. Jeff Pulver is the Chairman and Founder of pulver.com and one of
the true pioneers of the VoIP industry as the co-founder of VoIP provider,
Vonage(R). Mr. Pulver is a globally renowned thought leader, author and
entrepreneur.
Quotes:
"The announcement of our first funding round and new US office is a
'heads-up' to the high-tech community about SemantiNet prior to our
official launch," said Mr. Tal Keinan, CEO of SemantiNet, Ltd. "We are very
fortunate to have an 'A-list' of venture capitalists and legendary business
figures supporting SemantiNet not just with funding, but their accumulated
knowledge and perspective. The new US office is a key part of our upcoming
launch -- we need to be geographically close to the epicenter of Silicon
Valley and companies such as Facebook(R), Google(R), Microsoft(R),
Mozilla(R) and Yahoo!(R). Our upcoming product announcement leverages key
technologies and services from all 5 companies -- and many others -- as
well as our patent-pending Semantic Web breakthrough."
"SemantiNet's core technology is now being leveraged by a unique
consumer application, combining a crowd-sourcing approach with the power of
semantic web reasoning," said Mr. Oz Leave, Chairman of the Board for
SemantiNet. "We are very excited to be launching later this month and are
looking forward to providing our users with an information discovery
assistant that is fun to use, easy-to-understand and seamlessly integrated
into their browser."
About SemantiNet:
SemantiNet, Ltd. is a pre-launch startup with headquarters and R&D
based in Tel Aviv, Israel in addition to a sales and marketing office in
San Francisco, Calif. The company's first product will be announced in late
September of 2008, combining leading-edge semantic web technology with
crowd-sourcing, state-of-the-art cross-platform multimedia and integrated
browser functionality. Interested beta testers can sign up at the company's
website -- http://www.semantinet.com.
SemantiNet is a trademark of SemantiNet, Ltd. All other trademarks and
registered trademarks previously cited are the property of their respective
owners and are hereby acknowledged. Editor's Note: Images and logos are
available from SemantiNet's public relations counsel.
SOURCE SemantiNet, Ltd.
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Related links:
http://www.semantinet.com
CONTACT:
Jonathan Hirshon of Horizon Communications,
+1-408-969-4888, jh@horizonpr.com, for SemantiNet, Ltd.
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