Press Release
PowerReviews Secures $15 Million in Additional Financing Led by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners
Buzzillions.com Growing at Record Pace
MILLBRAE, Calif., September 13, 2007 – PowerReviews™ (http://www.powerreviews.com), a leader in customer reviews and social merchandising solutions for online retailers, today announced it has secured $15 million in additional financing led by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners along with current investors Menlo Ventures and Draper Richards. This additional funding will fuel current momentum plus planned expansion of PowerReviews service offerings and its recently launched consumer shopping research site Buzzillions.com.
“Working with these top-tier investors gives us the resources to further support the increasing demand for our innovative, tag-based product reviews solutions as well as create market awareness that Buzzillions is the best place to research products online, and the first place to start the shopping process” said Andy Chen, PowerReviews’ CEO.
Since its launch in April 2007, the number of reviews and products offered on Buzzillions.com has tripled. Today, the site offers more than 400,000 reviews on 125,000 products from over 1,000 ecommerce sites. Buzzillions.com not only serves online shoppers with honest, verified customer product reviews, but also benefits online retailers through the delivery of high-quality traffic that is converting at rates nearly twice that of other shopping portals. Buzzillions.com represents the revolution and evolution of online shopping. Reviews on every type of product are now available to consumers on Buzzillions.com, with more than 1,100 new products added every day.
“Online product research continues to grow exponentially and according to industry analysts, is set to influence more than 1 trillion dollars in offline purchases by 2011,” observes Benjamin Boyer, General Partner, Lehman Brothers Venture Partners. “Given this, our investment in PowerReviews was an easy decision as they are the company positioned to lead based on the breadth and depth of Buzzillions.com, its marquee client list and its experienced management team.”
The recent merchants added to PowerReviews’ network of retail clients, including REI, Staples, Toys ”R” Us, LampsPlus, and Sierra Trading Post, allows consumers to research an even wider variety of reviewed products. Whether shopping on their favorite retail site or on Buzzillions.com, shoppers continue to rely on PowerReviews to help them make informed, confident and satisfied purchase decisions.
In addition to its investment in PowerReviews, Lehman Brothers Venture Capital has investments Endeca and Tumri, industry leaders in their markets.
About Lehman Brothers Venture Partners
Established in 1995, Lehman Brothers Venture Partners (“LBLVP”) targets mid to later-stage venture capital investments in companies capable of turning innovative technology and management solutions into successful businesses. LBVP is managed by a team of partners located in Menlo Park, California, Boston, Massachusetts, and New York, New York. Lehman Brothers Venture Partners is part of Lehman Brothers’ Private Equity business. Lehman Brothers’ Private Equity, started in 1984, has assets under management of more than $20 billion and consists of 18 different fund strategies across six asset classes: merchant banking, venture capital, real estate, fund-of-funds, credit and infrastructure.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (ticker symbol: LEH), an innovator in global finance, serves the financial needs of corporations, governments and municipalities, institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals worldwide. Founded in 1850, Lehman Brothers maintains leadership positions in equity and fixed income sales, trading and research, investment banking, private investment management, asset management and private equity. The Firm is headquartered in New York, with regional headquarters in London and Tokyo, and operates in a network of offices around the world. For further information about Lehman Brothers’ services, products and recruitment opportunities, visit the Firm's Web site at www.lehman.com
About PowerReviews
PowerReviews is an enterprise solutions company that provides customer reviews and social merchandising solutions to multi-channel retailers, driving higher conversion and increased purchase satisfaction. PowerReviews’ patent-pending PowerTags™ technology captures customer opinions in their own words, making reviews more useful for shoppers, empowering them to make more informed and confident purchase decisions. Its customers include Staples, ToysRus, Ace Hardware, Ritz Camera, The Sports Authority, over 100 more. With the introduction of Buzzillions.com, the company has entered the consumer shopping portal market, leveraging its tag-based technology to introduce social navigation and affinity recommendations into the shopping research process for consumers. Based in Millbrae, California, PowerReviews is a privately held company with funding from leading venture capital firms Menlo Ventures and Draper Richards. For more information on the company, visit www.PowerReviews.com To experience the shopping benefits from Buzzillions, visit www.Buzzillions.com.
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Editor's Contact:
Lisa Tarter
TidalWave PR
415-440-4278
lisatarter@yahoo.com