December 21, 2009
ReachLocal files $100 million IPO
The heavily-funded local online ad company has been amassing a salesforce to win smb ad dollars.
This is more like it. Founded five years ago, not profitable, and ready to IPO. ReachLocal declared the public offering drought over today by filing for a $100 million IPO. The online local advertising company has taken in $68 million from VatangePoint Ventures, known for picking few companies and funding them up the wazoo, Rho Capital, and Opportunities partners.ReachLocal is trying to corner the online local ad market. This is a classic VC play: there’s a small window for one or two super-fast growing companies to grab a big chunk of a soon-to-be-massive market. It’s the same reason Yelp could attract a $550 million offer, and refuse it. ReachLocal has grown its salesforce from 28 in 2006 to 525 this year. The on-the-ground=growth seems smart. Most local businesses don’t yet see the advantage to online ads, as opposed to buying exposure in local print and display. But as the geo-web enables location-based targeting, whoever reaches the Mom and Pop shops first could have a serious advantage. London-based ReachLocal is betting that good old-fashioned door-to-door salesmen are the way to go. And a recession is the best time to find willing handwringers all across the globe.
VantagePoint owns 53.22% of the pre-IPO stake, Rho Ventures has 12.94% and Galleon Group, which has been caught up in an insider trading scandal, owns 6.76%.
Solyndra, another venture-backed company, filed for an IPO last week. The re-opening of the IPO market will help with M&A valuations as companies exit options widen.
Reach Local was ranked No. 1 on the Deloitte 2009 Technology Fast 500 list of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America.
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Reachlocal
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
ReachLocal takes the complexity out of local Internet advertising. We put together in one place everything local and regional businesses need to set-up, maintain, track and analyze local Internet advertising campaigns simply, affordably and comprehensively.
Yelp
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Yelp is the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what's great (and not so great) in your world. You already know that asking friends is the best way to find restaurants, dentists, hairstylists, and anything local. Yelp makes it fast and easy by collecting and organizing your friends' recommendations in one convenient place.
Yelp is...
...the ultimate city guide that taps into the community's voice and reveals honest and current insights on local businesses and services on everything from martinis to mechanics.
...just real people, writing real reviews, and that's the real deal.
...a fun and engaging place for passionate and opinionated influencers to share the experiences they've had with local businesses and services.
...the definitive local guide in the San Francisco Bay Area and a force to be reckoned with in Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle. But really, we're everywhere. From Austin to Madison and everywhere in between, reviews are coming in from all over the country!
...word of mouth marketing - amplified. Savvy local marketers now have a great channel to effectively target local consumers.
Since July 2004, co-founders Jeremy Stoppelman (CEO) and Russel Simmons (CTO) and their Yelp crew have been striving to make life better for people who love to patronize great local businesses. Discovering accurate information on local establishments has never been this entertaining. Writing reviews has never been this fun, easy and addictive!
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