OpenCandy Raises $3.5 Million

OpenCandy, a San Diego-based provider of distribution and revenue solutions for software developers, has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Reid Hoffman and Jordan Greenhall.

PRESS RELEASE

OpenCandy, Inc., a startup that delivers distribution and revenue to software developers, announced today that the company has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV) and angel investors including Reid Hoffman (Chairman of LinkedIn, Board of Mozilla), and Jordan Greenhall (Former CEO and Co-Founder of DivX). The funding will enable OpenCandy to expand the depth and reach of its unique platform for software developers. David Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partners joins OpenCandy co-founder and CEO Darrius Thompson as a member of the company’s Board of Directors.

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OpenCandy was started by founding and early members of DivX, where the team had developed a distribution engine that drove more than a hundred million software downloads and significant profits for DivX. They started OpenCandy to deliver the same kind of opportunity to all software developers, especially open source teams and others who lack resources to distribute and monetize.

“It doesn’t take a giant software company to build a great app,” said OpenCandy CBO, Chester Ng. “Everyday around the world software developers create great products. But without marketing and distribution, many of them are developing the best software you’ll never see.”

OpenCandy’s technology enables developers to recommend other software products, with or without compensation. These recommendations help users discover great applications much in the way that the SpreadFirefox program brought massive visibility to Firefox.

“Early in new markets, everyone thinks they can become a star on their own. Soon, though, power laws emerge, and some stars burn brighter than others,” said Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media. “OpenCandy has figured out a way for the most successful software developers to share the attention flow that comes their way with other developers whose work they admire. It’s a unique application of the implicit social graph in the software development community.”

“Bessemer is always looking out for great software teams to fund because – regardless of the economic climate – innovation doesn’t slow down,” said David Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partners. “And that’s exactly why the software community needs OpenCandy now more than ever.”

Gokul Rajaram, Member of the Board of Advisors and former Product Management Director of Google AdSense, said, “OpenCandy’s platform provides compelling value to software developers by greatly improving distribution and monetization of software applications, which ultimately benefits users through broader availability of innovative software products. The OpenCandy team has tremendous experience around the entire ecosystem of software, and I am very excited to help them achieve their vision.”

“We were very fortunate in this economy to attract the investment partners of our choice,” said OpenCandy CEO Darrius Thompson. “No one understands the needs and potential of the technology community better than Tim O’Reilly. And David Cowan, who funded Flycast, LinkedIn, BabyCenter, Hotjobs and Blue Nile, brings his great track record and unique expertise in how recommendations drive e-commerce.”

For more information on OpenCandy, visit http://www.opencandy.com

About OpenCandy

OpenCandy was founded in February of 2008 in by former DivX product, engineering, and business leads including Darrius Thompson, a co-founder and former executive officer of DivX. The OpenCandy team was responsible for the management and development of the consumer software distribution business at DivX which included the DivX Player, the DivX Software Codec, and the Stage6 web site.

The OpenCandy network, recently launched, lets software creators recommend and increase the distribution of other software they believe deserves more visibility. Recommendations are made during the installation process, in a user-friendly, highly effective manner. The software in the OpenCandy network and the recommendation experience is held to a high bar of quality, user experience and security standards.

About Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners (http://www.bvp.com) is a global investment group with offices in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Bangalore, Mumbai, Beijing, and Tel Aviv. As the oldest venture capital practice in the United States, BVP has partnered as an active, hands-on investor in Ciena, Ingersoll Rand, Parametric, Skype, Staples, VeriSign, and W.R. Grace, among many others. More than 100 BVP-funded companies have gone public on exchanges in Canada, India, London, and the United States.

About O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures

O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV) is in the business of funding disruptors, innovators and hackers of the status quo. From open source to the early days of the web and its recent resurgence, O’Reilly Media has played a key role as trend spotter and advocate for putting world-changing technologies on the map. OATV is our effort to bring the legacy, resources and relationships of O’Reilly to each investment we make. http://www.oatv.com