DCM Leads Round, Dixon Doll Joins Brickfish Board of Directors

SAN DIEGO (Business Wire EON/PRWEB ) February 22, 2007 -- Brickfish, The Digital Engagement Company, announced today that it closed $11.2 million in Series A financing led by DCM, and that Dixon Doll, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm’s co-founder and general partner, will join the company’s Board of Directors. Additional investors in the round include Draper Richards L.P., Draper Associates, Mangrove Capital, and OCA Ventures. The company will use the influx of capital to fund business growth and product development.

We are very pleased to have DCM's leadership and experience in this round and on our board of directors. DCM and the rest of our investor syndicate represent some of the world's leading VCs--their support is strong validation for both our team and for our vision for a new model for connecting advertisers and consumers in a focused and positive way

We'll use this new capital to accelerate our sales efforts and to build new viral propagation and reporting systems.

We believe that Brickfish's people-driven approach to advertising combined with its viral propagation of branded UGC will become the leading online platform for helping brands reach consumers worldwide

Brickfish offers online marketers and advertisers an effective alternative to view-based ads. By building interactive communities of consumers around their brands, companies of all sizes can aggregate real-time information that helps them more accurately and efficiently execute their product and marketing strategies.

We are strong believers in the power of the many, leveraged through the internet

In Brickfish, we found exactly that characteristic bundled with a very strong management team that has a clear vision of bringing this power to the benefit of brand-driven enterprises.

The Brickfish team is led by President and CEO Shahi Ghanem, previously President of Nasdaq-listed DivX, Inc., and his business partner, Founder and Chairman, John Kernan, formerly of Lightspan, Inc. The Brickfish.com site works in conjunction with the company’s viral propagation technology and real-time analytics systems to connect online marketers and consumers through the world of User Generated Content (UGC). Brickfish’s Digital Engagement platform rewards consumers who engage with online marketers by creating, reviewing, voting on, and viewing branded content on the web. Brickfish campaigns can support multiple types of content, such as video, image, audio, and blogs.

The company opened its site to beta users in August 2006 and launched its production site, www.brickfish.com, in January 2007. The Brickfish.com site is already frequented by hundreds of thousands of consumers from the U.S. and countries around the world. The company has successfully launched over 30 digital engagement campaigns showcasing thousands of pieces of brand-specific UGC for well-known companies in the music, fashion, and lifestyles industries.

“We believe that Brickfish’s people-driven approach to advertising combined with its viral propagation of branded UGC will become the leading online platform for helping brands reach consumers worldwide,” said Mr. Doll. “Brickfish offers online marketers and advertisers an effective alternative to view-based ads. By building interactive communities of consumers around their brands, companies of all sizes can aggregate real-time information that helps them more accurately and efficiently execute their product and marketing strategies.”

“We are strong believers in the power of the many, leveraged through the internet,” says Mark Tluszcz, Managing Partner for Mangrove Capital Partners. “In Brickfish, we found exactly that characteristic bundled with a very strong management team that has a clear vision of bringing this power to the benefit of brand-driven enterprises.”

About Brickfish

Brickfish, The Digital Engagement Company, provides a comprehensive platform that connects advertisers and consumers through the world of User Generated Content. The Brickfish platform enables consumers to engage with advertisers by creating User Generated Campaigns for their brands. This approach creates digital communities based on 100% brand-specific content and forms a positive feedback loop between advertisers and consumers. Consumers are recognized and rewarded for participating in Brickfish campaigns as they create, review, vote on, and propagate content across the internet. Brickfish also provides advertisers and content creators with comprehensive propagation and reporting tools to track the progress of their User Generated Campaigns. The company is located in San Diego, California. For more information, please visit www.brickfish.com.

About DCM

DCM (formerly known as Doll Capital Management) is an early stage venture capital firm supporting entrepreneurs building world-class technology companies. The firm’s partners manage more than US$1.5 billion and have funded leading technology companies including 2Wire, 51job (Nasdaq:JOBS), @Motion (Openwave), About.com (The New York Times Co.), All About (JASDAQ:2454), Arroyo (Cisco), Dang Dang, Foundry Networks (Nasdaq:FDRY), HireRight, Internap (AMEX:IIP), IPivot (Intel), JCI (Nasdaq Japan - Hercules: 9424), Kabu.com (TSE:8703), PGP Corporation, Recourse Technologies (Symantec), Sigmatel (Nasdaq:SGTL), SMIC (NYSE:SMI), UUNet (MCI), and Vimicro (Nasdaq:VIMC). DCM offers hands-on operational guidance and access to an extensive network of resources, including close relationships with many of the Pacific Rim’s leading companies and investors. For more information, please visit DCM’s website at www.dcm.com.

About Draper Richards L.P.

Draper Richards L.P. is a leading venture capital firm investing in seed and early-stage technology companies. Since 1996, the firm has funded entrepreneurs with the energy, vision, experience, and desire to build great companies. Draper Richards’ experienced management team, headed by veteran venture capitalist William H. Draper, III, is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs achieve their maximum potential through contacts, advice, and support. Draper Richards L.P. is located in San Francisco, California. For more information on Draper Richards L.P., visit www.draperrichards.com.

About Mangrove Capital Partners

Mangrove Capital Partners is committed to turning entrepreneurial visions into realities as a means to drive capital appreciation for investors. Their hands-on philosophy in all areas of business and technological development is the cornerstone of their investment strategy and positions them as a true partner for growth. Mangrove Capital Partners has invested in, among others, the following companies: Skype (www.skype.com), Securewave (www.securewave.com), Dialcom Networks (www.dialcom.com), Nimbuzz (www.nimbuzz.com), AllPeers (www.allpeers.com), Properazzi (www.properazzi.com), Quintura (www.quintura.com), and Piczo (www.piczo.com).

About OCA Ventures

OCA Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investments in companies with dramatic growth potential, primarily in technology, financial services, for-profit education, and technology-enabled services. OCA Ventures has funded industry leaders including, among others, NetHopper (acquired by Spirent/LSE:SPT), Bedouin (acquired by Borland/Nasdaq:BORL), and Compliances and Ethics Learning Solutions Corporation (acquired by SAI Global/ASX:SAI). For more information, please visit OCA Ventures’ website at www.ocaventures.com.

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