Benchmark Capital Completes Financing With Respond.com; Bill Gurley Invests Twice In Respond.com.MENLO PARK Menlo Park. 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 28,040), San Mateo co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. Electronic equipment and aerospace products are manufactured in the city. Menlo College and a Stanford Univ. research institute are there. 2 Uninc. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 8, 1999-- Benchmark Capital Benchmark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful startups, including eBay. In 1995, the firm invested $6.7 million in eBay, which became worth more than $5 billion by the spring of 1999 and resulted in one of Silicon , the leading high-tech venture capital investment firm, today announced its investment in Respond.com(TM). General Partner Bill Gurley led the investment and will be a Director of the Company. This is Gurley's first investment as a Benchmark Partner and his second investment in Respond.com. Gurley previously invested in Respond.com while a Partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. Respond.com is developing the most efficient Internet resource for matching Buyers and Sellers of a wide range of products and services. The Respond.com service enables Buyers to shop efficiently in thousands of categories, and provides Sellers with an introduction to potential customers who are ready to buy. Benchmark's investment in Respond.com will enable them to expand development, sales, customer service and marketing to meet customer demand for this unique e-commerce service. "We believe the market opportunity for Respond.com is exponential, and we are excited to be partnering with this company," said Gurley. "Respond.com is the future of online shopping. As an infomediary (INFOrmation interMEDIARY) An information provider that gathers content from several sources and functions as a data aggregator for a target audience. , they provide a valuable commercial service and can scale their business to address a huge market. They clearly have the right vision and the best service, at the right time" "We are pleased that Benchmark Capital and Bill Gurley share our vision of providing consumers with a new way to initiate the online buying experience," said Will Clemens, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Respond.com. "This investment will enable us to grow the business quickly and provide a great service to our customers. We are fortunate to be working with the two best early-stage investors in the industry, Benchmark Capital and Hummer Winblad, to build our company." Benchmark Capital Benchmark Capital was founded in 1995 with the mission of helping talented entrepreneurs build major technology enterprises focused on long-term growth. Benchmark takes a labor-intensive, team-oriented approach to venture investing venture investing The acquiring of a stake in a start-up company by a brokerage firm or analyst by obtaining discounted, pre-IPO shares. Critics claim venture investing causes analysts to have a vested interest in seeing a stock appreciate in value and so in order to deliver a superior level of service to its portfolio companies. Benchmark's portfolio includes franchise companies such as Ariba Technologies (http://www.ariba.com), Critical Path (http://www.cp.net), E-Loan (http://www.eloan.com), eBay (http://www.ebay.com) (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : EBAY), Genesys Telecommunications Labs (http://www.genesyslabs.com) (NASDAQ: GCTI GCTI Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc (stock symbol) GCTI Global Change Technology Initiative ), Northpoint Communications NorthPoint Communications (Former NASDAQ: NPNT) was a CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier), focused on data transmission rather than voice. Its business plan involved leasing copper telephone lines from local phone companies, then selling them at wholesale prices to (http://www.northpointcom.com) and Scient (http://www.scient.com). Managing more than $400 million in committed venture capital, Benchmark focuses on early-stage investing in markets where the partners have directly relevant experience. These markets include consumer devices, eCommerce, application services, networking equipment, semiconductor, software, and telecommunications services. For more information on Benchmark, visit their Web site at www.benchmark.com. |
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