Skip to main content

March 25, 2009

XOBNI ANNOUNCES INVESTMENT FROM BLACKBERRY PARTNERS FUND BRINGING SERIES B TO OVER $10 MILLION AND REMOVES BETA LABEL
Xobni Adds to Its Series B and Releases Major Performance Upgrade to Launch First Official Version

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 25, 2009 - Xobni, the popular Outlook search and relationship plugin, today announced an investment from the BlackBerry Partners Fund to bring the company's Series B round to over $10 million. The company has also removed its beta label with the introduction of Xobni v1.7. The new version of Xobni includes significant performance improvements to its relationship management sidebar and is available as a free download here: http://xobni.com/download

The BlackBerry Partners Fund's investment allows Xobni to continue developing innovative solutions, including its lightning fast inbox search and powerful relationship management tools. The funding will also accelerate the development of a premium version of the product slated for release later this summer. The investment from BlackBerry Partners Fund brings the total raised in Xobni's Series B funding to over $10M and adds BlackBerry Partners Fund Partner, Rick Segal, to Xobni's board of directors. Xobni closed the first part of the Series B in January 2009, led by Cisco Systems.

"Xobni has a very compelling value proposition and we look forward to its extension into new platforms and use cases," said Rick Segal of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. "We're delighted to be part of Xobni's growth and success."

"We're excited the BlackBerry Partners Fund shares our vision of improving email search and management," said Jeff Bonforte, Xobni CEO. "With the additional funding, Xobni will strengthen its service and extend it to new platforms for our customers."

Since the launch of Xobni's public beta in May 2008, the company has been working to optimize speed and performance. The new version of Xobni makes the following significant improvements:

  • Reduced Outlook Startup Time - Xobni now loads much faster inside Outlook
  • Faster Message Loading - Xobni profile data is now cached, reducing delays between loading messages
  • Indexing Controls - users can now control how often and how much of their mail is indexed
  • Sidebar Controls - users can now choose for Xobni to open automatically with Outlook or only open when they need it
Xobni has also enhanced its product offering throughout the past year by developing strategic partnerships with leading content providers including LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo! Mail, Skype and Hoover's.

About Xobni
Xobni is a San Francisco startup that shifts the focus of your email from one-by-one messages to the valuable relationships they reveal. Xobni is a relationship management tool that offers lightning fast search and organization of your inbox. The company was founded in the spring of 2006 by Adam Smith and Matt Brezina, launched to private beta in September 2007 and opened to the public in May 2008. Xobni is funded by Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, Cisco Systems, First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Atomico Investments, BlackBerry Partners Fund and others. For more information, go to xobni.com

About BlackBerry Partners Fund
The BlackBerry Partners Fund(TM) is designed to deliver superior returns on the compelling investment opportunity in applications, services and supporting infrastructure for the BlackBerry® and other mobile platforms. The Fund's mandate is based on the premise that in the future smartphones will be powerful portable computers for use at home, work, and leisure. The Fund invests in companies developing applications that make smartphones a compelling platform for media, commerce, enterprise, entertainment, and lifestyle applications. The Fund is global in scope and will consider all stages of development. For further information visit: www.blackberrypartnersfund.com.

Press Contact:
Evan Solomon
evan@sutherlandgold.com
(415) 683-1179
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
 
You will need to download the latest Adobe Flash Player to use all features of this page.
Details View
No items have been added to this area.

Are you sure you want to steal this reservation?


Viewed 429 times