SOURCE: Zivity

March 10, 2008 03:01 ET

Zivity Secures $7 Million in Series B Funding From BlueRun Ventures, Founders Fund to Build Premier Subscription-Based Social Network

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - March 10, 2008) - Zivity, a company creating a new category of subscription-based social networking for the 18 and over market, has raised $7 million in Series B financing from venture capital firms BlueRun Ventures and Founders Fund.

John Malloy, partner and a founder of BlueRun Ventures, and Luke Nosek, managing partner at Founders Fund, will join Zivity co-founders Scott Banister, Cyan Banister and Jeffrey Wescott on the company's board of directors.

BlueRun Ventures, which led the round of financing, has previously collaborated with Scott Banister at Slide, the personal media network best known for its embedded social networking applications, and PayPal, the online payment company now owned by eBay.

"Zivity, much like Slide and PayPal before it, has a driven and talented team focused on challenging the status quo and creating a large new market opportunity," said Malloy of BlueRun. "Zivity is introducing an innovative business model that reflects a major shift in the maturation of the Web. We look forward to helping build Zivity into a global media platform."

Zivity.com is a community-powered showcase promoting female beauty and expression through professional-quality photography. Subscribers to Zivity pay $10 per month and distribute 40 percent of their subscription fee to the participating models and photographers via Zivity's innovative dollar-backed voting system. Each vote cast delivers cash to the content creators.

"We think of Zivity as the HBO of the Internet," said Scott Banister, chairman of Zivity. "Unlike free social networks and other user-generated content platforms underwritten by advertisers, our subscription-based business model offers us real freedom -- to publish uncensored content and to pay our content producers generously. We believe consumers from all over the world will pay $10 a month for online freedom."

"As an entrepreneur and founder, Scott brings deep industry knowledge and the ability to recognize innovative new growth opportunities based on current trends," said Luke Nosek, a managing partner at Founders Fund. "We believe Zivity is pioneering a unique business model in social media that consumers are ready for."

Together with the $1 million announced in August, this brings the total capital raised by Zivity to $8 million. The new capital will be used to bolster the company's rapid growth with additional hires and expanded infrastructure. The site is currently in private beta and available by invitation only. Invitations can be requested at http://zivity.com. An open public launch is scheduled for 2009.

About Zivity

Zivity, a San Francisco start-up founded in 2007, provides subscription-based entertainment and social networking for an 18 and over audience. Zivity's initial focus is a community-powered showcase of professional-quality photography promoting female beauty and expression. For more information, visit http://zivity.com.

About BlueRun Ventures

Launched in 1998, BlueRun Ventures is a leading early stage venture capital fund. BlueRun Ventures' proven approach is to invest globally as a single fund in best-of-breed technologies and teams with the drive and ability to build leading global companies. BlueRun Ventures is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, with offices in Beijing, Helsinki, Herzelia (Israel), Mumbai, Seoul and Shanghai. For more information, visit www.brv.com.

About Founders Fund

Based in San Francisco and founded in 2005, Founders Fund is a group of four proven entrepreneurs with a shared vision: to change the way venture investments are made. Led by a team of experienced entrepreneurs, Founders Fund seeks to provide the capital, insights and support required to build a company from the ground up and sustain successful enterprises with a non-traditional, founder-focused approach. Their current portfolio includes Facebook, Geni, Powerset, Ooma, Quantcast and Slide among others. For more information, visit www.foundersfund.com.