Hasso Plattner Ventures invests in the promising Internet news distribution channel Feedzilla
New CEO and team members drive growth

Potsdam, April 30, 2009

Hasso Plattner Ventures is continuing its strategy to invest in outstanding companies despite difficult market times. The youngest member in the portfolio family is Feedzilla, a company offering news widgets worldwide and showing impressive growth. With the Feedzilla product website owners and bloggers enrich their sites with free and fresh news releases and news providers attract more traffic to their websites.

Hasso Plattner Ventures is investing together with the Business Angels Arnon Katz and Mehrdad Piroozram (iSteps Widget Ventures). With this fresh money Feedzilla will enter the next growth stage. Arnon Katz, who is as well an investor in Hasso Plattner Ventures’ European Fund, has been supporting the company already during the last years. His ongoing engagement shows his trust in the company and its founder Dr. Nicolas Bussard.

Eran Davidson explains the reasoning behind the investment: “Feedzilla offers a timeless benefit for its customers – and it is doing that in a very elegant and user friendly way. Their access to high quality news sources and their careful bundling make them stand out in the internet landscape. We are sure that their product will be in demand also in difficult market circumstances.”

About Feedzilla
Feedzilla’s website started in January 2004 and founder Nicolas Bussard has been developing it since with the support of several Business Angels. Dr. Bussard is driven by his vision to enable people worldwide a unique and easy access to relevant news. His motivation roots in his experiences as a child in Cameroon, where during the dictatorship of the Nineteen-Eighties censorship was harsh and objective news were impossible to be found. Ever since Dr. Bussard has been feeling the importance of freedom of information and opinion and became an evangelist for better news access for less developed countries. The internet technologies used at Feedzilla are a forceful tool for the worldwide spread of independent news and opinions.

Dr. Bussard, who has been the main driving force during the last years, will in future concentrate on product and technology (CTO). New CEO is Assaf Suprasky, who previously worked at Xtend Media for five years as VP Operations. He brings in a lot of experience in the fields of international online media. “The news industry is in a big turmoil. Feedzilla has the right concept at the right time.”

Feedzilla is unique in that it provides top quality and constantly updating content, which has been hand-picked, avoiding automatic spiders unlike competitors. These news can be added to any website through the use of widgets. Feedzilla provides local content for specific countries. The list of their content providers includes: major online media, local and regional publications, industry journals, companies, governments, universities, PR companies, official organizations, associations, shopping guides, web blogs and many more types of sources. Users can get access to this content by picking from the 1,700 + pre-defined categories or by using specific keywords. (An example for the keyword “Venture Capital” can be found at the HPV homepage: http://www.hp-ventures.com/general-news.html)

At present Feedzilla is actively hiring in all fields.

Hasso Plattner Ventures at a glance
Hasso Plattner Ventures Management GmbH was founded in July 2005 in Potsdam near Berlin. As a venture capital company, Hasso Plattner Ventures takes a minority stake in start-up businesses and supports them in accessing international markets. The main emphasis lies in investing in the segment of information technology. In 2008 a second fund was created which has widened the focus to include Cleantech as well as firmly established companies. SAP co-founder Prof. Dr. h. c. Hasso Plattner supplies the lion’s share of investment capital, followed by InvestitionsBank Brandenburg and CMEA Capital. The portfolio companies benefit not only from the financial support but also from the know-how and highly qualified internal as well as external consultants. Together with Feedzilla, the VC Company’s portfolio encompasses fifteen businesses. More information on www.hp-ventures.com.

For Hasso Platter Ventures Management GmbH contact:

Ulf Schmidt
August-Bebel-Straße 88
D-14482 Potsdam
Phone: +49.(0)331.979 92-128
Email: schmidt@hp-ventures.com
www.hp-ventures.com

For Feedzilla contact:

Assaf Suprasky
August-Bebel-Straße 88
D-14482 Potsdam
Phone: +49.331 97992-145
Fax: +49.331 97992-143
Mobile: +41.79.5249815
Email: pr@feedzilla.com
www.feedzilla.com

Publisher Contact Information:

Feedzilla
+49.331 97992-145
pr@feedzilla.com

Company profile of Feedzilla
Past press releases of Feedzilla.