Hit Search Limited liverpool 0845 643 9289

Search Engine News: ChaCha gets $10M Investment

By Andrew Redfern @ 14th November 2007 10:35 am

ChaCha 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.”

Meyerson’s investment supports ChaCha’s plan to launch several unique services in early 2008. ChaCha is also pleased to announce Meyerson has been elected to its board of directors.

“It is an exciting time for us,” said CEO Scott A. Jones. “We have been building a unique infrastructure that will completely change search as we know it.

We will soon unveil the next generation of search that will be the ultimate manifestation of the power of our special human-powered approach. We are thrilled Meyerson is behind our efforts and look forward to his support and input.”

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.

Other Related Stories That May Be Of Interest: