By John Rogers
Centraal Corp, which operates the RealNames web navigation system, announced that it has changed its name to RealNames Corp and said the company has completed a $70.6m third round of funding. As company president and CEO Keith Teare put it, Everybody has come to know and value us as RealNames, so why fight it? But at the same time that the company will take on the name of what it offers, the name of the offering itself is being changed from RealNames to Internet Keywords.
Teare says the name change for the company’s service reflects the broader approach now being taken to market it as an open standards-based platform, where RealNames Corp won’t act as the only provider. He sees Internet Keywords as an essential piece of the internet’s infrastructure going forward. In a situation similar to the way that Network Solutions Inc (itself an early investor in RealNames Corp) is no longer the sole internet domain name registrar, RealNames has relationships with about 20 other companies and organizations which can now provide Internet Keywords links.
The difference is that RealNames made the move by choice and Teare pledges that the company will aggressively promote the platform to potential new providers. On the commercial side, existing external providers currently number 10 and include eBay Inc and Amazon.com Inc, while the 10 non-commercial partners include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Nasdaq Market and the Internal Revenue Service.
The $70.6m in funding just closed by the two-year-old company will go towards a massive marketing effort to promote both awareness and adoption of the Internet Keywords system by companies, partners, and end-users alike. The offering was led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Venture Partners and includes as additional new investors Michael Dell Capital, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Bowman Capital, Hambrecht & Quist affiliate Access Technology Partners, Robertson Stephens’ Bayview Investors and the J&W Seligman New Technology Fund.
Five of the company’s existing investors also contributed to this round, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, idealab! Capital Partners, Amerindo Investment Advisors, New Millennium Partners and Network Solutions. The only big name absent this time around was Compaq Computer Corp.
Teare insists no decision has been made yet on whether this will be the last round of funding before the company is taken public, but admits that the sizable chunk of cash certainly buys time to mull the idea. He says he’s just beginning to think about it himself and that the company will begin internal discussions on the matter soon. The investors in the latest round were chosen carefully, Teare says, with an eye to establishing relationships with analysts at key investment backs, regardless of whether the company goes public or remains private for the foreseeable future.
On the sales front, Teare says the revenues have ramping more or less in line with internal expectations. The company began booking revenue in May of last year and took in about $1m in the seven-month year. By contrast, revenue hit $1m in recently- completed second quarter of this year alone. The company claims between 20,000 and 30,000 customers for it $100-per-year registration plan and roughly 75 that receive their registration free and pay on a per-visit basis – the latter plan having only been available since January of this year.
