The Rubicon Project Raises $21 Million With New Financing Led By Mayfield Fund

Extreme Market Demand Attracts 3,000 Websites to Sign-Up For Ad Network Optimization Service

AlwaysOn OnMedia, NYC January 28, 2008—the Rubicon Project, a company with a mission to automate the large, yet highly inefficient Internet advertising industry, has raised $21 million in total capital with a $15 million follow-on to the $6 million financing the company announced four months ago on October 8. The new Series B round was led by Mayfield Fund with participation from IDG Ventures Asia; Stanford University; University of California Berkeley; Matt Coffin, founder and former CEO of LowerMyBills.com and Clearstone Venture Partners, the company's Series A investor. The additional capital will fuel future business growth initiatives including international expansion, strategic acquisitions, research and development and infrastructure required to support the influx of websites signing up for the company's new ad network optimization service.

$27 billion was spent advertising online in 2007, yet 80% of ad space goes unsold by websites directly. Unsold ad space is sent to ad networks (e.g. Google AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network, Tacoda,Tribal Fusion, HispanoClick, etc.) to monetize. As the total online advertising market has grown, so has the number of ad networks. Today, advertisers spread money across 300+ ad networks, creating a world of chaos and confusion. Websites lack the technology, visibility and expertise required to manage multiple ad networks to fully monetize their ad space.

In response to this growing problem, on October 8, 2007, the Rubicon Project announced a new service for websites to generate mad cash from the ads on their site by optimizing ad networks. Websites using the Rubicon Project solution have seen revenue increases ranging from 33% to 300%.

"There is no question this has been a burning problem for websites. In the twelve weeks since our launch, more than 3,000 websites have signed up and we have optimized more than 4 billion ads across 50 of the top ad networks," said Frank Addante, CEO and Founder, "This has never been done before. We have created the world's first free-flow market between ad networks and websites. Our solution is 4 billion pieces of information smarter today than when we started. And now with the additional financing, we have everything we need to run full force at attacking this global problem; a killer team, a game-changing product and a deep source of capital to continue investing heavily in the research and development of our smart matching algorithms."

"Successful companies are driven by the best ideas executed by the brightest minds at the right time. the Rubicon Project has all three and is in the perfect storm as advertisers move swiftly online and web publishers are overwhelmed by choice and complexity in monetizing their inventory with ad networks." said Raj Kapoor, managing director, Mayfield Fund.

Interested in learning more? the Rubicon Project was selected as a 2008 AlwaysOn OnMedia 100 winner and will be participating at AlwaysOn OnMedia in NYC, January 28th and 29th. Frank Addante, CEO and Founder is speaking on the following panels:

• 1/28 at 6:15pm for "Silicon Alley meets Silicon Valley," a panel looking at the hottest start-ups from each coast
• 1/29 at Noon for presentation covering the Internet advertising industry and the Rubicon Project in the main ballroom
• 1/29 at 4:15pm as the featured CEO on the panel "Finding the Right Exit: IPO, M&A or Hold"

Watch the presentations and panels live from the AlwaysOn website: http://www.alwayson.goingon.com/

About the Rubicon Project
the Rubicon Project is a group of industry-experienced, aggressive and passionate renegades dedicated to bringing a new level of efficiency to the fragmented Internet advertising space. The founders of the Rubicon Project shook up the online advertising industry in 1998 when they created L90/adMonitor, one of the most successful Internet advertising platforms that served over 3,000 of the web's most recognized sites, reaching 65% of the Internet population before DoubleClick acquired it.

$27 Billion was spent advertising online in 2007, yet it's still too hard for websites to sell their ad space online. the Rubicon Project's web-based, self-serve solution gives any size website the most complete access to the total available advertising market and its smart matching™ technology does all the work to match each ad impression with the optimal money-making opportunity. the Rubicon Project is the new online advertising standard that makes it effortless for websites to generate the mad cash they've always dreamed of. And, it's free to join. Websites looking to make more money while doing less work should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank's blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/

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