LA JOLLA, Calif. - November 9, 2000 - Active.com, the leading online registration company for participatory sports and recreational activities, announced today that it has secured $21 million in a second round of financing led by ABS Ventures, the North American venture capital affiliate of investment bank Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown.
To date, Active.com has raised approximately $52 million, and will use the new financing to accelerate its growth and expand its online registration capabilities across the company's three core markets: participatory sports events, leagues, and parks and recreation.
"With its transaction-based revenue model, strong management team and current leadership in the participatory sports market, we're excited to lead this funding round," said Phil Black, general partner, ABS Ventures. "Active.com is taking a dominant role in a very fragmented market, leveraging the Internet to deliver a transaction-based Web solution to a market that represents potentially 400 million annual transactions. The company is also successfully driving real transactional traffic at very low acquisition costs due to their strong relationships with event, league and park directors."
Additional financing came from new and current investors, including Hambrecht Eu Capital, a private fund; and private investors Brian and Jennifer Maxwell, founders of energy bar company PowerBar (recently sold to Nestle S. A.). Current investors participating in the second round include Ticketmaster-Online CitySearch (TMCS), Enterprise Partners, Austin Ventures and Kettle Partners.
"Active.com's closing of second-round funding confirms that investors are still interested in consumer-oriented Internet business models that deliver utility, convenience and revenue," said Rob Labatt, principal analyst, GartnerGroup.
Leading the market for online event registration, Active.com provides online registration for an estimated 20,000 events worldwide, including 300 international events. Exclusive relationships with such organizations as National-Intramural Recreational Sports Association and the National Recreation and Park Association has yielded another 2,000 league organizations signed to use Active.com's online registration service. The company's core revenue stream is derived from a 5.5 percent plus .50 cent processing fee {charged to participants only) based on the specific event, league or activity registration fee.
"The backing from such prestigious new investors, in addition to the support from our current investors is clearly a strong endorsement of our vision, revenue model, market strengths and team," said Dave Alberga, president and chief executive officer, Active.com. "Raising these funds through such high-profile investment groups will allow the company to continue its solid momentum, bringing the convenience of online registration to event directors, league administrators, park professionals and participants globally."
With last month's announcement of its intention to merge with Sierra Digital (SDI) (the developers of a leading recreation management software for parks and recreation facilities) Active.com will now take an even deeper stake in the parks market. Through SDI's 1,000 customer base, Active.com will extend its online registration presence by providing park and recreation professionals across the country the ability to provide online registration functionality as a seamless extension of their existing management software. Millions of park visitors will soon be able to register online for activities through their recreation facility's Web site or at www.active.com.
"Consolidation will continue to occur in this fragmented industry, and Active.com will continue to be the consolidator and take a strategic leadership position," added Alberga.
Active.com has a history of strategic mergers and acquisitions. In November 1999, La Jolla-based RaceGate.com merged with Miami-based ActiveUSA.com, at the time, the industry leaders in event registration, to form Active.com. Shortly after this, TMCS invested $15.5 million in the company and Alberga, formerly chief operating officer at TMCS, joined the company to lead and build the organization.
In January 2000, a subsequent merger with LeagueLink, a Web-based league management services provider in Westminster, Colo., rounded out the company's offering with team and league management tools. On Oct. 11, 2000, the company announced its intention to merge with SDI, a leader in the recreation management software market.
About ABS Ventures
ABS Ventures is a leading independent, institutional venture capital firm with offices in Baltimore, New York, Northern VA and San Francisco that focuses on four segments of the high tech industry: Internet/new media, software, communications and healthcare. The North American venture capital affiliate of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, ABS Ventures invests approximately $200 million per year across the four areas of expertise. Their focus and experience in the communications industry has led to many successful investments in companies such as Cascade Communications and Wellfleet Communication. In the Internet/new media sector, recent and notable investments include USA.net, LifeMinders.com, Foveon, NetEx, iLumin, Branders.com, Collabria, and DiamondBack Vision Systems. In the software sector, investments include such companies as Telogy Networks and Daleen Technologies. For more information, contact John Burke at (410) 895-3890 or john@absventures.com.
About Active.com
As the leading online registration company for participatory sports and recreational activities, La Jolla-based Active.com (www.active.com) solves a perennial problem for event, league and park administrators by moving their inefficient, paper-based registration processes to the Web. Through the company's powerful set of data management tools, Active.com is saving event, league and park administrators time and money while improving their communications with participants. For participants, Active.com provides the most comprehensive worldwide database to find, learn about and register for sports and recreational activities online. The company has exclusive partnerships with sports national governing bodies and major Internet and media outlets. For more information, visit www.active.com or call (888) 543-7223.