Online sales promotion firm IQ.com secured $9.25 million in a second round
of funding led by Knight Ridder Ventures.
Other investors include current shareholder Brentwood Venture Capital as well
as first time backing from Arbor Investors.
Steven Rossi, senior vice president of operations at Knight Ridder, will join
IQ.com’s board of directors. “Sales promotions and loyalty programs for the
Web are widely recognized as being the next wave to break over the Internet
space,” said Rossi. “Not only is IQ.com ahead of the pack, but it has
developed superior technology and product offerings that are already at work
in the real world.”
“IQ.com is the first outsourcing partner to focus on making the e-marketer’s
job easier, which gives it a huge advantage in the exploding e-business
market space,” said Jeff Brody, partner, Brentwood Venture Capital.
IQ.com’s products allow marketers to conduct and manage their online
promotions in house and create an on-going, professional promotional presence
on their own site, their affiliates’ sites, or anywhere on the Web they
advertise. Merchants log onto the IQ.com service to create and deploy a
variety of sales promotions including instant savings, sweepstakes and
mini-storefronts.
Pricing is based on the cost per click model and ranges from $.05 – $.40
depending on volume. All results are tracked in real time using a closed loop
system.