New investor Helion Venture Partners joins Opus Capital and other investors to fund fast-growing online video ad start-up

Company reports strong advertiser and publisher growth since March launch

San Mateo – Jivox, the first self-service online video advertising platform for local businesses, today announced that it has closed a $10.7 million Series A round of financing led by Opus Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm.  New investor Helion Venture Partners, an India-focused venture fund, also participated in the round, along with Jivox’s existing investors. The funds will be used to continue development of the Jivox online video advertising platform, as well as to expand the company's sales and marketing efforts.

The Jivox online video ad platform enables smaller and local businesses to harness the power of online video advertising by reducing the cost and complexity of developing and placing online video ads.  Since its launch in March 2008, Jivox has seen broad adoption of its self-service online video ad platform by advertisers in a wide variety of industries, including travel sites, financial and real estate services, transportation companies and restaurants.  Jivox has also gained significant traction with publishers, who are eager to monetize the content on their sites and tap into a huge pool of smaller advertisers that would otherwise be confined to banner or search ads.  The Jivox Video Network now reaches more than 40 million viewers.

Jivox was founded in 2007 by Diaz Nesamoney, the visionary entrepreneur behind Informatica (Nasdaq: INFA) and Celequest (acquired in 2007 by Cognos).

“Online video advertising is the fastest growing segment of digital online marketing, but the cost of creating and placing video ads threatened to keep this medium beyond the reach of most smaller and local businesses.  Jivox makes it easy for both advertisers and publishers to begin taking advantage of online video advertising. The tremendous momentum Jivox has seen since launching just a few months ago demonstrates the strong demand for this type of service,” said Diaz Nesamoney, founder and CEO of Jivox.  “We’re very pleased to be working with Opus Capital and Helion Venture Partners, both of whom have great track records of backing successful online ventures.”

“Jivox has done an outstanding job proving its concept, gaining a large group of satisfied advertisers and building its network. The traction Jivox has gained in just a few months is a testament to the significant online video ad market opportunity as well as the strength of the Jivox team,” said Ken Elefant, general partner, Opus Capital.

“Jivox has built a solid base of advertisers and publishers in the U.S. as well as in India, where the rapid increase in Internet penetration is further paving the way for innovative technology products and services such as Jivox’s,” said Ashish Gupta, Managing Director, Helion Ventures Pvt. Ltd.  “We look forward to working with Jivox as it accelerates its growth in this market.”

About Jivox

Jivox, the self-service online video advertising platform for local businesses, gives smaller and local advertisers access to online video advertising by making it easy to create, target and deliver online video ads. The Jivox platform combines a self-service video ad creation tool, proprietary targeting technology, and a growing network of publishers to offer advertisers a complete, do-it-yourself service for online video advertising.  Jivox is a privately held company headquartered in San Mateo, Calif.  For more information about Jivox, please visit www.jivox.com.

About Helion Venture Partners

Helion Venture Partners is a multi-stage, India-focused venture fund with $350 million under management. The fund invests in businesses that are either technology-powered or catering to the Indian consumer services space. The focus sectors of investment include - outsourcing, internet, mobile, technology products, retail services, education and financial services. The fund’s investors are well-respected Global institutions including top tier University endowment funds, Foundations and family offices. The fund and its portfolio companies are advised by an experienced and industry renowned team of professionals based in India which include Sanjeev Aggarwal, Ashish Gupta, Kanwaljit Singh and Rahul Chandra.

About Opus Capital

Opus Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm with more than $1 billion capital under management, investing in committed, high integrity entrepreneurs building early-stage technology companies. The team has participated in the successful outcomes of more than 80 companies (including 50 IPOs) in the U.S. and in Israel including AirGate PCS, Electronics for Imaging, FedEx, Genesys, Harmonic, Informatica, Precept Software and Vantive. Opus Capital is headquartered on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California.  For more information, visit www.opuscapital.com.