David Horowitz, Partner

I joined Genacast in January 2013 as a Partner. Previously, I was a partner at Comcast Ventures where I was one of the first employees in 2000 and remained for nearly 13 years. (I still manage portfolio investments for Comcast Ventures).

I’d like to talk a bit about the birth of Genacast, one in which I was proud to be closely involved with. I first met Gil Beyda in 2007 when he was with Tacoda running their financing process for their Series D. Comcast Ventures was very excited about Tacoda and had considered leading the Series D until I got a phone call one day from Gil that Tacoda was being sold to AOL. That was a big disappointment to us at the time given the amount of time we spent getting to know Gil and team at Tacoda and our excitement about Tacoda’s business prospects. Gil was one of the best entrepreneurs I had met and I made it a point to keep in touch with him throughout rest of 2007 into 2008. After numerous sessions brainstorming on how we could work together, Comcast Ventures partnered with Gil in 2008 to form Genacast, a seed stage investment fund focusing on technology companies in the Northeast. Today, I am proud to call Gil my partner even though we have been working closely together since 2008 as we have collaborated on many deals over the years. This has made this a very smooth transition for me.

Over the past 13 years in venture capital I have noticed a significant shift in early stage financing requirements. When I first joined Comcast Ventures in early 2000s, we would get pitched by early stage companies who needed $5M to hire a dozen engineers and build a prototype for a proof of concept. That was called a Series A and was typically split $2.5M each by two venture capital firms. The proceeds were used to buy servers, rent space in a data center, build layers of the software stack, buy an exchange server for e-mail, etc.

Fast forward to 2013, at Genacast we are getting pitched by entrepreneurs and teams that on little to no capital have already developed a prototype, may have already validated their product with customers and in some cases already have revenue. Instead of seeking $5M, these companies may only be looking for $1M to scale their product or for sales and marketing. These companies are leveraging cloud computing with Amazon, open source software, Google apps, Gmail, etc.

This is an unbelievable shift and change in how companies start and their capital requirements. I believe this is very positive for the entrepreneurs – they can operate more capital efficiently and lower capital requirements generally means less dilution to their founders’ equity. I also believe this is very positive for seed stage investors as with a smaller amount of capital invested we are seeing a significant reduction in the amount of risk of seed stage investing.

I don’t believe the seed stage phenomenon is a bubble or a fad. If anything I think we will continue to see great entrepreneurs start new businesses needing less capital to achieve milestones such as first revenue and shipping their beta product.

I am thrilled to be joining Genacast and working closely with Gil to invest in the next generation of disruptive technology-oriented, capital efficient start-ups.

From 1985-95, I was a software consultant with clients in the US, Europe and Asia. I designed and developed everything from operating systems to databases to complex financial applications. In 1995, David Morgan, Mark Pinney and I started Real Media, the first online ad network and ad server company. I was the CTO and developed one of the most popular ad servers used by many of the largest online publishers in the world. Real Media was acquired by 24/7 Media in 2001 and again by WPP in 2007. After Real Media was acquired I join Dave Morgan as CTO of Tacoda where we pioneered online behavioral targeting. Tacoda was acquired by AOL in 2007.

After Tacoda was acquired, I did what every entrepreneur does and pondered -- yet again -- what I wanted to be when I grew up. I met with dozens of start-ups and had a number of start-up ideas of my own. I had been lucky enough to be a part of two successful start-ups so I was looking for a new challenge. I considered offers to be an advisor, consultant or board member to many start-ups. I thought long and hard and decided that I didn't just want to be a passive onlooker; I wanted to be deeply vested in the success of the start-up. And the best way to do that was to have "skin in the game." Hence my desire to be an investor. And in order to make meaningful investments I needed to raise a fund. Also, given my start-up, business and technical experience, I thought I could bring something different to help my portfolio be more successful.

In addition to being CTO at Tacoda, I was head of corp dev and ran our fund raising process in 2007. We didn't end up taking funding since we were acquired but as part of that process I met some great funds and investors. I became very familiar with Comcast Ventures as we got pretty close to taking an investment from them. After AOL's acquisition of Tacoda, I left and began discussions with Comcast Ventures on starting a seed-fund. They do $2-20M sized investments and were looking for a vehicle to do earlier stage investments. We thought it would be a good match so we both invested capital and formed Genacast Ventures in the spring of 2008.

Choosing to partner with Comcast was an easy decision. First, Comcast Ventures is a top firm and as I made the shift from entrepreneur to venture capitalist it was important to learn from the best. Second, Comcast/NBC/Universal is an amazing platform and would be a great resource. Finally, the open-ended fund structure would liberate us from the typical fund dynamics (7 year fund, fully-invested by year 4 and pushing for exits from which to begin raising the next fund.) Instead, we would be able to take our time and invest at the right pace: do more deals when we see more great deals and do fewer deals when seeing less interesting investments – without regard to fund lifecycle.

Fast forward 5 years and it has been a great relationship. The fund has performed wonderfully with significant financial and strategic returns, having funded some great companies including InviteMedia which was acquired by Google and Demdex which was acquired by Adobe. Side note: Genacast is an independent, non-strategic fund. Meaning, we have a different investment approval process than Comcast Ventures and our investments don't have to have anything to do with Comcast or NBC/Universal but, of course, if there are potential tie-ins then even better since we have a close working relationship and can open doors and make key introductions.

So where does the name Genacast come from? I'd like to say that I spent months doing market research and focus groups but the real story is far less scientific. I compiled a list of over 200 names ranging from the pratical to the silly, including: SeedLogic, PennGenesis. USS Ventures, United States Seed, Precursor, Asymetric, Seedelphia, Venshire, Telemachus, Diamond Orange, Tomato Seed, Impromtu, Open Sesame, Dog The Fish, Pig Iron, Lepricast, Rollercoaster and Noname.

Genacast started as an amalgum of Genesis (always a great place to start) and Comcast. When I typed Genacast into Google, there were NO results. Wow, nobody had ever used that term in recorded human history -- at least according to Google. So it gave us a completely blank canvas to brand the firm. It also helped that it was a pronounceable word with a good number of vowels and consonants.

Genacast Ventures is itself a start-up and I am very proud of what we've accomplished so far and look forward to many more exciting years working with great entrepreneurs and helping to build great companies.

LeadiD (leadid.com), developer of a groundbreaking lead certification technology platform, today announced that it has closed $1.7 million in funding to accelerate the company’s growth and success in the lead generation marketplace. The investment was led by Genacast Ventures, a seed-stage investor, based in Philadelphia, PA. LeadiD will use the funds to hire additional business development and engineering resources, produce unique marketing campaigns, accelerate innovative application development and drive market adoption.

In conjunction with this investment, LeadiD has recently added several industry veterans to drive LeadiD’s growth. John Trionfo, LeadiD’s most recent hire from TARGUSinfo, is the company’s new Senior Vice President; Rob Rokoff, previously of Leads360 and TARGUSinfo, is the Vice President of Business Development; Natalie Stopko, previously of LendingTree, LLC., has come on board as Director of Marketing; Lauren Jacobson, previously of Ampush Media, Inc., will come on board in early August as Director of Client Services. In the coming weeks, LeadiD will add executives from additional firms within the Lead Generation space.

“We feel great about LeadiD’s accomplishments in the Lead Generation space thus far, and Genacast Venture’s investment is a big vote of confidence in our company, our team and in the LeadiD platform. We are passionate about what we are doing here at LeadiD, and Gil Beyda [Genacast Founder] shares that passion,” said LeadiD Founder and CEO, Ross Shanken. “We look forward to this partnership, accelerating LeadiD’s already rapid industry adoption.”

“We were very excited to invest in LeadiD. We see hundreds of businesses each year and LeadiD was a standout with a game-changing idea in lead generation. Plus they have a team with deep domain experience and an ability to deliver this valuable service,” said Gil Beyda, Founder and Managing Partner of Genacast Ventures.

LeadiD has over 160 companies utilizing the platform, which currently issues over 15,000,000 unique LeadiDs per month across the Education, Insurance, Legal and Automotive verticals. “LeadiD market adoption validates that many firms in our industry do want lead gen to mature; and LeadiD does a better job bringing both sides together because our technology platform empowers a neutral and trusted transaction. We are excited that Gil recognizes the potential of our technology and our team and I am thrilled to have Genacast join the LeadiD family,” explains Shanken.

NEW YORK, Oct 06, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Enterproid, maker of the Divide(TM) Platform for enterprise mobility, today announced it has closed $11 million in Series A funding to accelerate the company's growth and customer success. The investment was led by Comcast Ventures with participation from Google Ventures and Qualcomm, acting through its venture investment arm, Qualcomm Ventures. Enterproid will use the funds to extend engineering capabilities, expand distribution and launch a series of global partnerships.

"This additional funding is a great vote of confidence in our company, our team and most importantly in the Divide(TM) Platform, which fundamentally changes the way mobile professionals use their smartphones in the workplace," said Andrew Toy, CEO of Enterproid. "Enterproid solves the compelling challenge of allowing individuals who use their personal device at work to create a secure, IT-friendly business profile without compromising the individual's privacy or choice of device."

As the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend continues to accelerate globally, the Divide(TM) Platform helps companies accommodate and support employee-owned devices within the corporate IT environment and gives employees a dual persona on their device that delivers secure access to business productivity applications, without compromising personal privacy. Currently in beta and soon available for download on the Android Market, Divide(TM) delivers multiple profile support, productivity apps and a fully managed and secure environment.

Divide(TM) gives employees access to a full set of remote management capabilities without requiring the installation of any desktop or server software or any support from corporate IT. Lost devices can be remotely located and wiped with corporate data being erased on the entire handheld.

For IT administrators, Divide(TM) is a critical new tool that includes a fleet-management console for supporting enterprise-wide policy deployment and enforcement including the ability to see all connected devices, set policies by group, perform remote wipes of corporate data, lock corporate profiles and administer password resets. Additionally, Divide(TM) has built-in expense management tools to help identify roaming devices and display network operator usage data.

"Employees bringing their own devices to work is a growing phenomenon, and Enterproid has found a solution for the challenge it creates for businesses' privacy and security," said Dave Zilberman, Principal at Comcast Ventures. "We think Enterproid provides meaningful customer value, has the potential to disrupt an industry and, most importantly, changes the way people live, work and interact. Our infusion of new financing, alongside impressive investors, enables Enterproid to accelerate its growth plans."

About Enterproid, Inc.

Enterproid helps organizations and individuals get the most out of mobile technology. The company's flagship Divide(TM) Platform combines cloud-based management with device-level technology that ensures enterprise security and control without compromising personal freedom and privacy. Founded by former mobile executives and engineers from Morgan Stanley, Enterproid is headquartered in New York, with offices in London and Hong Kong. Enterproid's seed round investors included Genacast Ventures, High Peaks Venture Partners, and NYC Seed. The company was the Grand Prize winner of Qualcomm's QPrize at the 2011 Demo Spring conference. Learn more at www.enterproid.com , @dividemobile.

About Comcast Ventures

Comcast Ventures is the venture capital affiliate of Comcast Corporation. It consists of the recently combined Comcast Interactive Capital and NBC Universal Peacock Equity Fund and has a portfolio valued at $750 million under management. Comcast Ventures invests in innovative businesses that represent the next generation of entertainment, communications and digital technology by partnering with entrepreneurs who have the vision, passion and tenacity to succeed. Its primary goal is to generate superior financial returns through the success of its portfolio companies by applying the unique resources, contacts, experience, and insight of Comcast's family of companies.

About Google Ventures

Google Ventures is the venture capital arm of Google Inc. We seek to discover and help develop great companies, and believe in the power of entrepreneurs to do amazing things. Our investments range from seed to late stage, across a broad range of industries, including consumer Internet, digital media, software, hardware, and biotechnology. We embrace the challenge of helping young companies grow from the proverbial garage to global relevance. For more information, visit www.googleventures.com .

About Qualcomm Ventures

Qualcomm Ventures, the venture investment group of Qualcomm Incorporated, was launched in the United States in November 2000 with an initial US$500 million allocation. Qualcomm Ventures' aim is to support Qualcomm's mission of enabling and fostering 3G and wireless Internet markets through investments in privately owned startup ventures. These investments include companies focusing on wireless communication technologies and products serving consumer, enterprise and vertical markets worldwide. For more information, please visit www.qualcomm.com/ventures .

SOURCE: Enterproid, Inc.

August 30, 2011

Series C Funding Round Entrenches DoubleVerify as the Global Standard for Online Media Verification and Compliance

New York (August 30, 2011) – DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com), the pioneer and worldwide leader in online media verification and compliance, today announced that it received $33 million in financing led by JMI Equity and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), two of the premier later stage venture capital and private equity firms in the United States focused on investing in rapidly-growing software, Internet and business services companies. Other participants in the round included previous investors Blumberg Capital and First Round Capital. In conjunction with the financing, Bob Nye of JMI Equity and Dennis Phelps of Institutional Venture Partners have joined the company’s board of directors. This investment brings the company’s cumulative financing to $47 million.

Since the company’s launch in 2008, DoubleVerify has developed the standard for online media verification for advertisers, agencies, ad networks, DSPs, exchanges and publishers. Using its proprietary, patent-pending technology, DoubleVerify has driven accountability and transparency for the online advertising ecosystem by tracking actual delivery of campaigns to verify that they are in compliance with the advertisers’ insertion order terms, conditions and buying guidelines. DoubleVerify is utilized by more than 200 of the leading Fortune 500 marketers, all six of the major agency holding companies, and is accepted and integrated with all major publishers and sell-side platforms.

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Adobe Acquires Demdex – Brings Audience Optimization to $109 Billion Global Online Ad Market

Posted Jan 18, 2011

The Adobe Online Marketing Suite, powered by Omniture, together with the Demdex data management platform, delivers an industry leading audience optimization solution for publishers and advertisers

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Jan. 18, 2011 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced it has acquired privately held Demdex, a leading data management platform company. The global online advertising spend is a large and growing market and is projected to reach $109 billion in 2013* as online advertising becomes an increasingly strategic part of the marketing mix. Online audience optimization is a critical factor for advertisers and publishers to maximize their online ad investment. The addition of Demdex to the Adobe Online Marketing Suite, powered by Omniture®, delivers an audience optimization solution that will enable advertisers and publishers to consistently deliver more relevant digital experiences to their customers.

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Investing in Exchange Bidding

Thursday, June 3, 2010 | 11:05 AM

We’re happy to announce that we’ve acquired Invite Media, an innovative start-up based in New York and Philadelphia.

The team at Invite Media has developed technology that enables advertisers and agencies to use “real time bidding” to buy display ad space, and to optimize display ad campaigns, across multiple advertising exchanges, all in a single interface.

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March 8, 2010

New York (March 8, 2010) DoubleVerify, Inc. the pioneer and market leader in online advertising verification, today announced it has closed a $10 million series B financing round led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). The round included participation from existing DoubleVerify investors. A later-stage investor in rapidly-growing digital media and technology companies, IVP has funded many successful ventures, such as Business.com, ComScore, HomeAway, MySQL, Netflix, Quigo Technologies, TiVo, Twitter and Zynga.

DoubleVerify provides a technology solution that delivers transparency and accountability for agencies, marketers, publishers and ad networks running online ad campaigns. Advertising verification has created a fundamental shift in the online industry that for first time allows marketers to accurately verify their campaigns for brand safety, delivery accuracy and regulatory compliance. Major agencies and marketers have adopted verification in the past year, many of which have mandated the use of DoubleVerify across their entire online media spend.

DoubleVerify is the global leader in ad verification and pioneered the category when it launched in May of 2008. The company currently verifies over 25 billion impressions per month, which is more than all other competitors in the category combined. DoubleVerify’s dominance in the ad verification space has enabled the company to become profitable after two quarters and grow from 10 to 45 employees in less than a year.

“We feel fortunate to experience such rapid growth in the past year, and this funding will help us continue expanding quickly and innovating for our customers,” says Oren Netzer, Co-Founder and CEO of DoubleVerify. “The increased demand for verification and our leadership position in the space has allowed us to attract top-tier venture capital firms such as IVP. We look forward to working with the great team at IVP.”

“DoubleVerify has become the de facto standard for online advertising verification and is led by a strong team,” said Dennis Phelps, General Partner of IVP. “We look forward to working with management as they grow the business and transform the world of online advertising.”

“We’ve been extremely impressed with the progress that DoubleVerify has made in the past year, and the amount of interest in this round of financing further validates their dominance of the space,” according to David Blumberg, Managing Partner, Blumberg Capital.

“We’re gratified that the increasing level of trust relationship that we have with America’s leading marketers and agencies was noticed by the investor community,” said David Bell, a DoubleVerify board member.

DoubleVerify’s growing list of customers includes over 50 Fortune 500 Marketers. In December, DoubleVerify released BrandShield, the industry’s first complete ad prevention and blocking solution. DoubleVerify had previously closed a $3.5 million Series A financing in May 2009 led by Blumberg Capital, with participation from First Round Capital, Genacast Ventures and private investors.

DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com) is the worldwide leader in online advertising verification and the top choice of marketers, agencies, ad networks and publishers looking to ensure brand safety, campaign transparency and regulatory compliance. DoubleVerify verifies over 25 billion advertising impressions per month for dozens of leading Fortune 500 marketers. DoubleVerify is headquartered in New York City, with engineering offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. Investors in DoubleVerify include Blumberg Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, First Round Capital and Genacast Ventures.

Secures $3.5 Million in Series A Financing
Emerges as Leader in Online Media Verification and Assuring Brand Safety

New York (May 18, 2009)

DoubleVerify, which pioneered online media verification, today announced that following a highly successful trial and ramp-up of its real-time verification solution for online advertising transactions, that it has formally launched. During the past few months, a number of blue-chip advertisers including one of the top 3 banks, one of the top 3 telecommunication companies and one of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies began mandating use of DoubleVerify on most of their media buys.

Using proprietary, patent-pending technology, DoubleVerify helps agencies, marketers, publishers and ad networks increase online advertising accountability and transparency by tracking the actual delivery of clients advertising campaigns and verifies that they are being delivered in compliance with the advertiser's insertion order terms, conditions and buying guidelines. This allows marketers and their agencies to identify and remove budget waste from their campaigns, safeguard the reputation of their brands online, uphold regulatory compliance requirements and verify that they fully capitalized on their marketing opportunities. Currently DoubleVerify is being tested or used by over two dozen Fortune 500 marketers in various industries such as telecom, financial, entertainment, pharma, tech and travel.

DoubleVerify enables publishers and ad networks to be more proactive and pre-emptive with clients increasing their accountability, minimizing trafficking mistakes, reducing reconciliations and make-goods, speeding up collections and attracting more brand dollars to their sites or networks. Currently the company is in discussion with over 10 ad networks including 3 of the top 5 on implementing DoubleVerify as a standard part of their client offering.

DoubleVerify today also announced it has closed a $3.5 million Series A financing led by Blumberg Capital, with participation from First Round Capital, Genacast Ventures and private investors. David Blumberg, Managing Partner, Blumberg Capital; Chris Fralic, Partner, First Round Capital; and Gil Beyda, Managing Partner, Genacast Ventures will join Oren Netzer, Co-Founder and CEO of DoubleVerify on the company's Board of Directors.

"This financing and the major client wins are a testament for the importance of having an objective, third-party verification solution in the market. Marketers and their agencies have been flying blind for too long. Now that digital marketing has become an important part of the marketing strategy and significant resources are being devoted to it, marketers need to know that they are getting what they paid for," says Mr. Netzer.

"Anything that eliminates waste in online advertising is a huge plus for everyone involved in the Internet economy. DoubleVerify is making sure the advertiser/agency gets what they ordered and that the impressions that have near zero value are eliminated," says Greg Stuart, former CEO of the IAB and co-author of What Sticks. "This will help raise the value of the ads that are served as ordered and improve the ROI for marketers. It will also enforce accountability and discipline on publishers and ad networks."

DoubleVerify spent over a year gradually testing and implementing its technology with major agencies, marketers and ad networks, and has become a vital part of their online advertising campaigns. DoubleVerify is currently verifying billions of advertising transactions per month.

"We've been very impressed with the rapid adoption of DoubleVerify's solution by major clients," says Mr. Blumberg. "Accountability and compliance have become major issues for both buyers and sellers of online advertising. DoubleVerify has strongly emerged as the leader in this space."

"This is a win for the online advertising industry," says Gil Beyda, Managing Partner at Genacast Ventures. "I have been in online advertising for nearly 15 years and DoubleVerify finally delivers advertisers and agencies much-needed buying confidence and accountability as they shift more and more of their advertising budgets online."

DoubleVerify (http://www.doubleverify.com/) is the leading provider of online media verification solutions, providing agencies, marketers, publishers and ad networks with the first fully-automated, fully-authenticated, third-party verification solution for internet advertising transactions. DoubleVerify helps increase advertising accountability by detecting and preventing waste or misuse of advertising budgets and by helping take proactive measures to maintain brand reputation and increase accountability. DoubleVerify monitors billions of advertising transactions per month for major Fortune 500 marketers. DoubleVerify is headquartered in New York City, with engineering offices in Tel Aviv, Israel.