Pluggd Closes $6M Series A Investment From Leading Venture Funds

The financing will be used to accelerate product development, boosthiring, and build partnerships with traditional media companies and premiereonline content providers of all sizes.

"We are building a really unique platform that can search inside the videostream, and we look forward to working with content publishers and advertisingservice providers both," said Alex Castro, CEO of Pluggd. "Our technologymakes it possible to connect advertisers with new, hyper-engaged audiences bydelivering the most relevant ad, at the best possible moment."

Searching within the stream increases user engagement

Pluggd's core technology analyzes content within video in a way that makesit easy for consumers to view the "chunks" they want within a multimediastream, thus dramatically increasing the amount of time they stay engaged --by as much as 300%. This is good news to an industry shifting away from "pageviews" and toward "minutes" as the most reliable way to evaluate a site'svalue to advertisers.

"Internet audio and video is rich in potential growth, but currentlylacking a useful search service," said Angela Biever, vice president, IntelCapital, and managing director for the Consumer Internet Sector. "Pluggdaddresses that need directly."

"Pluggd's ability to let users search within a video stream is somethingno one else can offer," said Scott Lenet of DFJ Frontier. "The increased userengagement from this technology effectively boosts inventory for contentowners, creating an enormous market opportunity for contextual videoadvertising."

Contextual ad targeting means more opportunities to monetize video

The same underlying technology makes it possible to place relevant ads ina user-friendly way, and dramatically increases the inventory of content thatcan be monetized by advertisers and publishers alike. By unlocking the entirevideo stream, an advertiser no longer has to rely solely on pre-roll andpost-roll placement. Rather, they can dynamically place clickable overlay adbanners at any point in the program that is the most contextually relevant.

"We think Pluggd's solutions for targeting high-value ads into onlinevideo are ingenious," said Ian Sobieski from Band of Angels. "This is anincredibly dynamic marketplace and we feel Pluggd is demonstrating strengthsthat will allow it to emerge as the leader."

As part of the funding, both Sobieski and Lenet will join the company'sboard of directors, joining founder Castro and Mark Klebanoff. Gustavo Arayof Intel Capital will also participate as a board observer.

About Pluggd

Pluggd was founded to create the world's best video search and advertisingplatform for advertisers, publishers, and consumers alike. As themulti-billion dollar online advertising market matures, so does the need tounlock and monetize the entire content within a video stream. Pluggd'senabling "HearHere" and "SeeHere" technology makes it uniquely possible todeliver the most relevant ad, at the best time, and to the most engagedaudience. The company was named an AlwaysOn Most Innovative Private Companyin 2007, and was an invitee to the prestigious Under the Radar and DEMOconferences. Pluggd is located in Seattle, and on the web at.

About Intel Capital

Intel Capital, Intel's venture capital organization, makes equityinvestments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. IntelCapital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, andservices targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer Internet,semiconductor manufacturing, and cleantech. Since 1991, Intel Capital hasinvested more than U.S. $6 billion in approximately 1,000 companies in over 40countries. In that timeframe, about 157 portfolio companies have gone publicon various exchanges around the world and another 187 have been acquired byother companies. In 2006, Intel Capital invested about US$1.07 billion in 163deals with approximately 60 percent of funds (excluding Clearwire) investedoutside the United States. For more information on Intel Capital and itsdifferentiated advantages, visit .

About DFJ Frontier

DFJ Frontier is a venture capital firm that invests in seed and earlystage companies on the West Coast. DFJ Frontier backs passionateentrepreneurs in a broad array of industries, including informationtechnology, life sciences, clean technology, and other emerging businesses.The firm typically leads the first round of investment, taking a significantstake in the company and an active role on the board of directors. DFJFrontier is an affiliate of Draper Fisher Jurvetson and has offices inSacramento and Santa Barbara, California. For more information, please visit:.