Stipple Secures $2 Million Financing Co-Led by Kleiner Perkins and FLOODGATE


SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - November 18, 2010) - Stipple, the company with the fastest way to label, share and monetize photo content on the web, today announced that it has closed a $2 million seed round co-led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and FLOODGATE. The round comes just three months after Stipple's launch in August 2010.

"Photos are a primary source of web traffic and engagement, yet innovation in photo monetization and discovery has lagged behind other types of media on the web," said Rey Flemings, founder and CEO of Stipple. "This round of financing will help Stipple to better serve our growing customer base and power additional innovations in the photo space."

Other contributors to the $2 million seed fund include Naval Ravikant, Eghosa Omoigui, Global Brain Corporation, Quest Venture Partners, Parkview Ventures, John Ferber, Justin Timberlake and Rick Marini. Mike Maples and Eghosa Omoigui will join Stipple's board of directors.

Mike Maples, managing partner at FLOODGATE, said, "By marrying the ubiquity and engagement of photos with a business model and user experience that harnesses the power of community and network effects, Stipple has created the underpinnings of a company with disruptive potential in a massive market. We are excited to help them execute on this vision."

"Stipple powers an innovative new interactive layer atop images on the open web. Its tools will make the web's more than a trillion images more engaging and discoverable while helping web publishers -- ranging from top 100 websites to individual bloggers -- generate more money from their content," said KPCB Partner Chi-Hua Chien. "We are thrilled to be on board to unfold Stipple's new roadmap."

Stipple offers free tools to easily label the content of pictures on the web. Once a photo has been labeled, Stipple connects the label to real-time information, advertising or product offers as appropriate. In addition, this fall Stipple introduced a new feature called People Dots, bringing people tagging to the open web. Now Stipple users can label people in any web photo, not just photos hosted on social networks.

At its launch, Stipple announced partnerships with Six Apart, JIVE Label Group, Atlantic Records and E.W. Scripps Company.

About Stipple
Stipple provides the fastest way to label, share and monetize photo content on the web. Stipple makes pictures more interesting, while creating revenue opportunities for publishers. With Stipple, publishers can open the door to a new layer of content, commerce and information on top of their pictures. Stipple is primarily funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and FLOODGATE, and headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. For more information, visit Stippleit.com

About Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Since its founding in 1972, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has backed entrepreneurs in over 500 ventures, including AOL, Amazon.com, Citrix, Compaq Computer, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Genomic Health, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Lotus, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, Verisign, and Xilinx. KPCB portfolio companies employ more than 250,000 people. More than 150 of the firm's portfolio companies have gone public. Many other ventures have achieved success through mergers and acquisitions.

About FLOODGATE
FLOODGATE is a Silicon Valley based, early-stage micro-VC fund focused on start-ups that fundamentally disrupt existing large markets or create new market categories. The firm currently works with consumer-focused companies such as Twitter, Chegg, ngmoco, digg, Modcloth, Kno, Stipple, and Smule, as well as business-focused companies such as Solarwinds, Spiceworks, Demandforce, Egnyte, and YuMe Networks.

Contact Information:

Stipple Media Contact:
Monica Miller
LaunchSquad
(415) 625-8555
stipple (at) launchsquad (dot) com