Zoosk Raises $6 Million in Third Round of Funding Led By Canaan Partners
SAN FRANCISCO/PRNewswire/ -- Zoosk, the world's largest
social dating community, today announced it has raised an additional $6
million. Existing investor Canaan Partners led the round. This third
round of funding will be used to further accelerate Zoosk's market
share growth worldwide, grow its team, and for continued product
innovation.
The additional funding follows Zoosk's rapid growth during the past
six months, from 16.5 million users in January to more than 30 million
in June 2009. During this time, Zoosk's revenues have grown
tremendously and now surpass those reported by multiple publicly traded
online dating companies in the U.S. Zoosk generates revenue from
Premium Memberships, the sale of "Zoosk coins" that can be used to
purchase virtual gifts, and advertising.
Zoosk is the top-ranked lifestyle application on Facebook. Users can
join Zoosk by adding the Zoosk application through Facebook, Bebo, Hi5,
Friendster, and MySpace, or by signing up at Zoosk.com. Zoosk is the
only social dating community that allows users to seamlessly connect
across multiple networks, meaning a Facebook user can interact with a
MySpace or Hi5 user, for example.
"We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Canaan Partners,"
said Alex Mehr, co-founder and co-CEO of Zoosk. "This new round of
financing enables us to aggressively expand our marketing efforts to
introduce social dating to singles everywhere. We will also focus on
continued innovation of our platform to make the social dating
experience even more fun."
Zoosk recently introduced the ability for its users to link their
Last.fm and Netflix accounts to their Zoosk Date Cards, making it
possible for singles to easily share their latest movie and music picks
with potential dates. Built using the Last.fm and Netflix APIs, the
integration of music and movie updates to Zoosk Date Cards gives
Zoosk's more than 30 million users more opportunities to naturally meet
potential dates.
"Zoosk is redefining the online dating experience for millions of
singles, and it is presenting a real challenge to traditional online
dating companies," said Deepak Kamra, General Partner at Canaan
Partners. "Our team has helped many companies in the online dating and
social web markets, such as Match.com, break through to new levels of
growth. With its current momentum, we believe Zoosk is positioned to
become of the largest online dating companies in the world. We continue
to be impressed with Zoosk's success and are excited to participate in
its next stage of growth."
To support its expanded efforts, Zoosk is recruiting for multiple positions. For more information, visit http://www.zoosk.com/jobs.php.
About Zoosk
Zoosk is the fastest growing social dating network enabling millions
of singles to meet love interests and forge long lasting relationships.
Building on users' social graph and taking advantage of opportunities
on social networks, Zoosk has created a safe, fun, and delightful
online dating experience. Zoosk has quickly grown to a community of
over 30 million singles from more than 40 countries around the globe,
including United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France,
Italy, Mexico, South Africa and many more. Zoosk is based in San
Francisco and was founded in January 2007 by Shayan Zadeh and Alex
Mehr. For more information visit: www.zoosk.com.
About Canaan Partners
Canaan Partners invests in visionary entrepreneurs and provides them
the networks, insights and operational guidance required to build
high-performance technology and healthcare companies. For 20 years,
they have taken an active and committed role in the companies in which
they invest, and have completed more than 72 mergers and acquisitions
and 53 IPOs. With $3 billion under management and a worldwide
footprint, the firm's technology team is committed to catalyzing the
growth of innovative companies in the digital media, communications
& mobility, enterprise and clean tech industries. Among its
successes are Acme Packet, Amicus Therapeutics, Cerexa Inc.,
CommerceOne, DexCom Inc., DoubleClick, Intralinks, Match.com,
SuccessFactors and WebLoyalty. Other Canaan investments include Active
Networks, AdvancedBioHealing, BharatMatrimony, BiPar Sciences, Blurb,
Chimerix, Inc., N-trig, Prime Sense, ReVision Optics, Inc., Transoma
Medical, Inc, Tremor Media and Xirrus. Canaan has offices in
California, Connecticut, India and Israel. For more information visit
www.canaan.com.
Source: Zoosk
CONTACT: Audrey Shedivy of Henry Grey PR, +1-310-770-0610,
audrey@henrygreypr.com, for Zoosk; or Gina Vakili of Canaan Partners,
+1-650-854-8092, gvakili@canaan.com
Web Site:
http://www.zoosk.com/
http://www.canaan.com/
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