Certona closes $7.0 million Series A financing

SAN DIEGO – July 22, 2008 – Certona, a provider of automated optimization and personalization solutions for multichannel retailers, announced today that it has closed a $7.0 million Series A financing led by ABS Ventures, with participation from previous investor, Express Ventures.

The funding will be used to expand the company’s sales, marketing, customer support, and product development resources.

“Certona is one of the leaders in a product category that is becoming critical for online and multichannel retailers. We feel that their proprietary Resonance platform is truly a disruptive technological breakthrough,” said Thayer Swartwood of ABS Ventures. “No one else in the industry has their impressive client list and customer retention track record. We look forward to working with the company to grow its business.”

“ABS Ventures not only brings us added capital, but also the operational and strategic expertise to help us stay at the cutting edge of the Internet and e-commerce markets,” said Meyar Sheik, founder and CEO of Certona. “This partnership combined with our long-term approach will help us continue along the path of strong growth.”

Resonance leverages the traffic and purchase patterns of a site’s visitors as well as many other visitor and product attributes to help create the most unique and individualized online experience for each visitor without the need for any personally identifiable information or special interaction with individuals.

“We believe the e-commerce and Internet battleground is already moving toward ‘Web 3.0’, which has the characteristic of focusing on the individual user’s experiences and ability to receive the right information at the right time from anywhere,” said XJ Wang, Vice President at the Yankee Group. “It’s no surprise, then, that Certona is receiving investment interest for their solution, given the current market trends along with their proven track record.”