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ChaCha Receives $10 Million Investment Led by Legendary Morton Meyerson
Former EDS and Perot Systems leader also joins ChaCha's board of directors
INDIANAPOLIS (November 14, 2007) ChaCha (www.chacha.com), the only real-time human-powered search engine in the world, announced today it received $8 million in private equity funding and a $2 million grant from Indiana's 21st Century Technology Fund resulting in total proceeds to the company of $10 million. Morton Meyerson, a first time investor in the company who led the round, joins ChaCha investors Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment firm of Jeff Bezos, Rod Canion, founding CEO of Compaq Computer, and Jack Gill, veteran Silicon Valley investor, founder of Vanguard Ventures and current partner at Maven Ventures.
Morton Meyerson was formerly the Chairman and CEO of Perot Systems in addition to serving as president of EDS, where he led the company to unprecedented growth quarter after quarter. By the time of his departure, EDS was the largest computer services company in the world. At his private investment firm 2M Companies, Inc., Meyerson invests in companies that exhibit the same qualities and values as the most successful teams he led at EDS and Perot Systems.
”It
is rare to find a company offering such a game-changing disruptive
equation, even in the context of giants like Google, Yahoo and
Microsoft. Having had the opportunity to work with the entire ChaCha
team, I am especially impressed with the caliber of people driving this
groundbreaking company,” said Meyerson. “I am excited for ChaCha's
future potential and think its plan to build upon its human-powered
search engine to develop a mobile answers application is brilliant.
ChaCha is absolutely in the right place at the right time in a
multi-billion dollar industry that is ripe for innovation.”
ChaCha's desktop search service is free to users and can provide searchers with as much or as little assistance as they would like with their questions. ChaCha is the first search engine to offer two options for searching - instantly or with the assistance of a human guide in real-time. If the instant results from “ChaCha Search” option do not completely answer a users' question, ChaCha can immediately connect them with a live human guide who will assist them with their search in a real-time instant-message chat.
For more information or to “ChaCha” your next search query, try ChaCha's Beta version at www.chacha.com.