ChaCha Secures $6 Million in Private Funding from Jeff Bezos, Rod Canion, Jack Gill and Others.Company also appoints three members to board of directors INDIANAPOLIS -- ChaCha (www.chacha.com), the only real-time human-powered search engine in the world, announced today it received $6 million in private funding in 2006. The ChaCha search system is so innovative that 18 patents have been filed in the first year. The funding was led by Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment firm of Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos (born January 12, 1964 , Albuquerque ) is the founder, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of Amazon.com. Bezos, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton University, worked as a financial analyst for D. E. Shaw & Co. , with additional participation from Rod Canion Rod Canion co-founded Compaq with Jim Harris and Bill Murto in 1982, investing $1000 in the company. Before co-founding Compaq Canion worked at Texas Instruments. Canion led Compaq as Chief Executive Officer through a decade of unprecedented growth. , founding 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 Compaq Computer, and Jack Gill, veteran Silicon Valley investor, founder of Vanguard Ventures and current partner at Maven Ventures. As the first search engine to offer two options for searching -- one with a human guide who assists you in real-time via an instant-message chat and the other option providing immediate search results that include instantaneous user-ranked results, ChaCha is standing out in a crowded search engine market. "At ChaCha, we often give you instant search results that are better than other search engines," said CEO Scott A. Jones. "But if you're still stuck and searching for something a little more difficult, we can connect you with a live human guide in real-time who will assist you with your search, for free. Investors are eager to be involved with emerging leaders in the rapidly growing multi-billion dollar search industry. Here are some of ChaCha's investors: Bezos Expeditions: This is the personal investment company of Jeff Bezos, who was named TIME magazine's Person of the Year in 1999 for his visionary leadership and founding of Amazon. Rod Canion: As the founding CEO of Compaq Computer, Canion set records during his decade tenure for the largest first-year sales in the history of American business and reached the Fortune 500 and the $1 billion revenue mark faster than any other company in history. Jack Gill: Gill is a veteran venture capitalist Venture Capitalist An investor who provides capital to either start-up ventures or support small companies who wish to expand but do not have access to public funding. Notes: Venture capitalists usually expect higher returns for the additional risks taken. and co-founder of Vanguard Ventures. Gill is a founding partner of Maven Ventures in Silicon Valley. Simon Equity Partners: Simon Equity Partners is an affiliate of the largest publicly traded retail real estate company in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. - Simon Property Group Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE: SPG), also known as SIMON, an S&P 500 company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the largest developer of shopping malls in the United States. Simon Property Group, Inc. . Don Aquilano: Aquilano is Managing Director at Gazelle gazelle, name for the many species of delicate, graceful antelopes of the genus Gazella, inhabiting arid, open country. Most gazelles are found only in Africa, but several species range over N Africa and SW Asia; the Persian, or goitered, gazelle ( TechVentures, an Indianapolis-based venture capital firm. "Right now is a very exciting time to enter the rapidly growing search industry, and I believe ChaCha's radically different approach to search through their innovative use of real people will continue to gain traction in the marketplace," said Rod Canion, founding CEO of Compaq Computer and ChaCha investor. "I am pleased to be involved on the ground floor of such an exciting project." Along with computer scientist Michael McRobbie Michael McRobbie (born October 11, 1950) is the eighteenth president of Indiana University. He took office on July 1, 2007. Before his appointment as president, McRobbie served as provost and vice president of academic affairs of the Bloomington campus. , Indiana University's Provost and VP of Academic Affairs, investors Rod Canion and Jack Gill have been appointed to ChaCha's board of directors. Joining CEO Scott A. Jones and President Brad Bostic, the three men possess extensive high-tech industry knowledge to guide ChaCha as it continues to expand its presence in the marketplace. Since launching the experimental Alpha version Software that has just been compiled and ready for its initial test inhouse. See alpha test, beta test and release candidate. in September 2006, ChaCha has had more than 20,000 people sign up to be guides. In its first four months of operations, the search engine has already garnered user traffic at levels exceeding those at many first generation search engines. For more information or to "ChaCha" your next search query, try ChaCha's Beta version A pre-shipping release of hardware or software that has gone through alpha test. A beta version of software is supposed to be very close to the final product, but, in practice, it is more a way of getting users to test the software in the first place under real conditions. at www.chacha.com. About ChaCha ChaCha is the first and only search engine that can instantly connect users to a live person to assist with searches. Co-founded by Scott A. Jones and Brad A. Bostic in 2006, ChaCha is dedicated to providing a breakthrough new search experience offering users with two options to search: with a guide or without. Both ways produce relevant results garnered from all the best resources on the deep web and from the top choices of more than 20,000 ChaCha guides. Rated as the "#1 Search Engine of 2006" by SEO (Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimizer) See search engine optimization. Charles Knight and re-posted alphabetically by highly respected blogger, John Battelle (www.battellemedia.com), ChaCha is combining the best of technology with human intelligence. Jones is the inventor of the voicemail system used by over a half billion people worldwide and is the leader of other successful tech ventures including Gracenote (see www.scottajones.com). Bostic has led a number of high-tech start-ups. For media inquiries, please contact Liza Dittoe of Dittoe Public Relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most at 317-202-2280 or liza@dittoepr.com. For more information, visit www.chacha.com. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion