MarkMonitor Secures US$12 Million in Financing; Names New Board Member

Global 2000 Demand for Online Corporate Identity Protection in the U.S. and Abroad Fuels Investment and Expansion.

By Derek Iwasiuk
DomainInformer.com
May 11, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO and LONDON - MarkMonitor(R), the leader in online corporate identity protection, today announced it has closed US$12 million in venture capital investment led by Cargill Ventures. This round of funding will be used to accelerate development of MarkMonitor's industry leading suite of solutions to protect corporations and their customers from online fraud and counterfeiting. Existing venture capital and institutional investors, Focus Ventures, Foundation Capital and Institutional Venture Partners, also participated in this round. In conjunction with the funding, Monica Morse, managing director at Cargill Ventures, will join MarkMonitor's board of directors.

"MarkMonitor's expertise, technology innovation, and market leadership uniquely positions the company to protect Global 2000 brands from increasingly sophisticated threats to their online corporate identities and intellectual property," said Monica Morse, managing director at Cargill Ventures. "The rapid adoption of MarkMonitor's current brand protection, channel monitoring and fraud prevention solutions demonstrate the market demand for online services that help to safeguard corporations from a range of virtual risks and threats."

MarkMonitor serves over 250 major corporations worldwide, including 41 of the global Fortune 100, and provides a comprehensive suite of corporate identity management solutions that gives clients a holistic view of fraudulent activities and vulnerabilities that impact their brand equity.

"As global brands are increasingly being hijacked to perpetrate cybercrimes, corporations need to implement end-to-end strategies that enable them to protect their brands, revenues and customers from a wide range of emerging online identity-based threats," said Mark Shull, CEO of MarkMonitor. "This funding will support continued innovation and global expansion, and will position the company ahead of the growing demand for online corporate identity management solutions."

About Cargill Ventures

Cargill Ventures invests in early stage technology-driven companies that enhance business processes, growth and innovation in global industries relevant to Cargill. Cargill Ventures maintains offices in San Mateo, Calif., and Minneapolis. It is a business unit of Cargill Inc., www.cargill.com, an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services. With 142,000 employees in 61 countries, the company is committed to using its knowledge and experience to collaborate with customers to help them succeed. Additional information about Cargill Ventures is available at: www.cargillventures.com.

About Focus Ventures

Focus Ventures is the leading expansion stage venture capital firm that invests in emerging market leaders in the software, semiconductor and communications industries. Focus Ventures currently manages US$570 million, having closed its first fund in October 1997 and Focus Ventures II in December 1999. Focus Ventures offers its portfolio companies access to high quality partners in Asia and an extensive network of resources focused specifically on driving top line revenue growth through customer introductions and by establishing distribution channels, joint ventures and licensing arrangements. Since the firm's inception, Focus Ventures has invested in 86 companies and has had 20 IPOs and seven acquisitions by public companies. A select number of portfolio companies that have gone public include: Active Software, Agile Software, Alteon WebSystems, BroadBase Software, Chordiant Software, Commerce One, Copper Mountain Networks, Corio, CoSine Communications, Interwoven, Loudcloud, Niku, Pixelworks, and Verisity. For more information, visit www.focusventures.com.

About Foundation Capital

Founded in 1995, Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm committed to supporting entrepreneurs and their companies, targeting innovative opportunities in telecommunications and networking; Internet infrastructure; and enterprise software and on demand services. Foundation Capital funds total more than US$1.6 billion. For more information, visit www.foundationcapital.com.

About Institutional Venture Partners

With more than US$1.6 billion of cumulative committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier venture capital firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 200 privately-held companies, and more than 80 of these companies have gone public. The firm's General Partners have more than 100 years of combined venture capital experience. IVP is currently investing IVP XI, a US$300 million fund focused on expansion-stage investments in rapidly-growing information technology companies. IVP has offices in Menlo Park and San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit www.ivp.com.

About MarkMonitor

MarkMonitor is the global leader in delivering comprehensive online corporate identity protection services, Making the Internet Safe for Business(TM). MarkMonitor's integrated Brand and Fraud Protection(TM) platform provides full life-cycle management, including its Early Warning System(TM), as well as real-time detection, and investigation and response, to a wide and growing list of identity-based online security problems faced by corporations today. These solutions are enabled by a comprehensive brand and fraud intelligence network that monitors for inappropriate or fraudulent use of a corporate name or identity anywhere in the Internet, including websites, search engines, major email systems, domain name systems, registries, message boards, blogs, chat rooms, and auctions. For more information, visit www.markmonitor.com.
Web site: http://www.cargillventures.com
Web site: http://www.focusventures.com
Web site: http://www.foundationcapital.com
Web site: http://www.ivp.com
Web site: http://www.markmonitor.com