LiveOps Fuels Expansion with $28 Million in Series C Financing Led by Benchmark Capital
Palo Alto, CA, February 13, 2007 - LiveOps, the leader in distributed contact centers, announced today that it has secured $28 million in Series C financing. Leading the round is blue-chip venture capital firm Benchmark Capital, which joins existing investors CMEA Ventures and Menlo Ventures.
The infusion will fund strategic opportunities such as investments and acquisitions to help accelerate the company's growth. LiveOps is a pioneer in the distributed contact center model and currently contracts with over 10,000 home agents, or work-from-home customer service agents. IDC determined there were 112,000 home agents in 2006 and predicts that number will grow to 320,000 by 2010. The research firm included the growth of "homeshoring" among its Top 10 predictions for 2007.
In December, LiveOps announced that former eBay COO Maynard Webb joined the company as CEO. Webb is credited with creating organizational processes and day-to-day structures which enabled eBay to grow from $140 Million in revenue to over $4.5 Billion in 2005, as the employee base grew from 250 to over 12,000. Benchmark Capital general partner Bill Gurley introduced Webb to LiveOps.
"The homeshoring model is key to helping service-based businesses succeed and thrive in 2007 and beyond because it is scalable, dynamic and accessible," noted Mr. Gurley. "LiveOps reminds me of the potential we saw in eBay in that both are leveraging the power of the community and technology to create better ways of facilitating transactions."
Mr. Webb noted, "This influx of capital will help us continue to transform the way people work. LiveOps' advanced call center platform enables people to work from anywhere, at anytime. We've built a passionate agent community, and are improving the quality of life for thousands of home-based business owners. I joined LiveOps since it shares the same excitement that eBay did when I joined there."
The leading company in the distributed call center industry, LiveOps has over 150 customers, ranging from brand-name direct marketers to Fortune 500 companies, and has worked with the Red Cross to reconnect families in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
San Francisco-based investment banking firm Savvian Advisors acted as financial advisor to LiveOps for the transaction.
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 LiveOps, Inc.
LiveOps, the virtual call center company, frees businesses from the complexity and constraints of traditional call center models. LiveOps operates the world's largest virtual call center, providing the only complete solution with on-demand applications, home agents and proven best practices that deliver breakthrough results. LiveOps on-demand call center applications instantly provide an enterprise-scale virtual call center infrastructure, while its network of 20,000 experienced home agents provides unmatched customer service. LiveOps' cost effective solutions provide greater flexibility, quality, scalability and control than traditional call center technology providers. LiveOps is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Visit us online at www.liveops.com.
