Seattle, Wash — Avvo, Inc. (www.avvo.com), the world’s largest legal directory, announced today, it has received $10 million in a new round of financing, led by DAG Ventures of Palo Alto, CA. Current Avvo investors, Benchmark Capital and Ignition Partners, also invested in this round. The funds will enable Avvo to further expand and enhance its products and services for consumers and lawyers.
“We’re honored and excited to have DAG join the Avvo team,” said Mark Britton, Founder and CEO of Avvo. “Given the current funding environment, this deal speaks volumes to Avvo’s success and the value we bring both consumers and lawyers. This funding round not only gives us the ability to continue that success, but to expand it. Stay tuned everyone – we have great things in store.”
Avvo milestones:
– Concept to market leader in three years
– Largest and most trafficked legal directory
– Largest free legal Q&A forum receiving tens of thousands of questions and answers each month
– Ratings and profiles for 90% of licensed attorneys in the US
– 50K actively participating lawyers, including 1/3 of all lawyers in Avvo’s home state, Washington
About DAG Ventures
DAG Ventures, headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, isa venture capital partnership investing in and helping outstanding entrepreneurs create leading, long-term companies across a range of markets. With roots from the 1980’s in cable TV, infrastructure, media, and wireless industries, the partnership today is privileged to work with world-class entrepreneurs as they build tomorrow’s leaders in the information technology, energy, and life science sectors. For more information on DAG Ventures, visit its website at http://www.dagventures.com.
About Ignition Partners
Ignition Partners, headquartered in Bellevue, WA, is a premier venture capital firm dedicated to helping the best entrepreneurs seize opportunity ñ from turning their early stage idea into a business, to hiring the right team, providing the right industry and functional insight and connections, and growing their business strategically, globally, and financially to realize the best ultimate outcome. Ignition invests in emerging and future leaders in communications, internet, software, and services across business and consumer targets. Ignition brings together an unparalleled combination of domain focus, technical expertise, and global operational experience. Ignition’s partners are proven business leaders who have built some of the world’s most successful businesses of the last two decades, including Microsoft Windows and Office, McCaw Cellular Communications, AT&T Wireless and Starbucks. For more information on Ignition Partners, visit its website at www.ignitionpartners.com
About Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital, a leading international venture capital firm, was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs with original ideas build successful technology companies. Benchmark’s general partners take a team-oriented, labor-intensive approach to venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the firm’s portfolio companies. Benchmark’s portfolio includes high-profile start-ups like Bebo, Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, Second Life, Tellme, Yelp, and Zillow, and franchise companies such as eBay, Juniper Networks and Red Hat. Managing more than $3.5 billion in committed venture capital, Benchmark has offices in Silicon Valley, Europe and Israel. For more information on Benchmark Capital, visit its website at www.benchmark.com.
About Avvo
Avvo is the only free website that empowers consumers to handle their legal matters with confidence. Avvo offers ratings and profiles for every lawyer, as well as client reviews, peer reviews and attorney disciplinary records. Avvo also offers Avvo Answers, the world’s largest question and answer forum where people can ask real attorneys – anonymously if desired – any legal question and receive personalized answers. Additionally, Avvo Legal Guides are a resource of lawyer-generated best practices for consumers seeking guidance on their legal issues. The website currently covers 90% of the lawyers in the United States, including profiles and ratings for every licensed attorney in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin; and partial coverage in limited release states including Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Vermont and Wyoming. Founded in early 2006, Avvo is privately held, with funding from private investors, Dag Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Ignition Partners. For more information, visit www.avvo.com.
