Mitre Media Buys MunicipalBonds.com

Mitre Media, which is backed by iNovia Capital, has acquired MunicipalBonds.com and BondFunds.com. Financial terms were not announced. MunicipalBonds.com provides municipal bond market data and pricing information for individual investors and financial advisors.

PRESS RELEASE

Mitre Media, a leading publisher of financial content and tools for high net-worth investors, financial advisors and financial decision makers, announced that it has acquired MunicipalBonds.com. MunicipalBonds.com, in terms of Internet traffic, is the leading source of municipal bond market data and pricing information for individual investors and financial advisors. Mitre Media also acquired BondFunds.com as a part of the same transaction.

Founded in February 2012, Mitre Media has acquired flagship properties in other top finance verticals including Dividend.com and ETF Database. Mitre Media was founded by Tom Hendrickson, 29, who served as the former President of Investopedia through that site’s acquisition by Forbes.

“At Investopedia, we pioneered providing basic financial information and definitions across all financial categories. With Mitre Media, our goal is to go deep within each category and operate the premier site,” said Hendrickson. “With MunicipalBonds.com, we saw a leader in a valuable niche with a very valuable demographic to advertisers. We are able to apply our expertise at scale to deliver the best in financial information to the investing public.”

Munigo Signs On As Long-Term Advertiser on MunicipalBonds.com

“We are excited for MunicipalBonds.com to become a part of a much bigger vision. In this business, there are certain types of expertise that need to be applied at scale,” said Bhu Srinivasan, founder of Munigo, the previous publisher of MunicipalBonds.com. “Munigo has signed on to be an advertiser on MunicipalBonds.com.”

MunicipalBonds.com is a leader in real-time pricing data from the municipal bond market. The site also offers Moody’s ratings and Moody’s research reports on thousands of issues. Mitre Media is planning to make a push into making MunicipalBonds.com a stronger editorial product with daily coverage of the municipal bond market tailored to individual investors.

MunicipalBonds.com Connects Bond Issuers and Advisors with Bond Buyers

The biggest push is to enable issuers to directly market to bond buyers through customized sites hosted within MunicipalBonds.com. “Our first task is to make it easier for leading issuers to reach our audience, build e-mail lists, and get the benefit of year-round marketing that can be tapped into when issuers get ready with retail order periods,” added Hendrickson.

Additionally, MunicipalBonds.com has been pilot-testing a program to match financial advisors to retail investors. Based on the success of the program, MunicipalBonds.com will immediately launch the program to all financial advisors and RIAs that specialize in serving high net-worth municipal bond investors.

“Our commercial initiatives are all about connecting all of the participants in the public finance ecosystem with individual investors,” said Hendrickson.

Mitre Media Poised to Scale

Mitre Media plans on acquiring or launching sites in up to 20 additional financial categories through 2013. The company has raised over $8.5 million from investors including iNovia Capital, a leading venture capital firm.

“When Tom brought us his strategy to build a network of leaders in every major financial niche, we were immediately excited by his vision. Given his track record and experience, we are excited to be involved as investors,” said Kevin Swan, iNovia Principal and Mitre Media Director.

The combined audience of the new Mitre Media properties is over 750,000 unique visitors per month and growing. According to Quantcast data, the demographic profile of the network shows higher average income than sites such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, CNBC and even Bloomberg.

Mitre Media has been advised by San Francisco-based Horizon Partners since inception.

About Mitre Media

Mitre Media is a leading online publisher of niche financial media assets including Dividend.com, ETFdb.com, CommodityHQ.com, MunicipalBonds.com and BondFunds.com.