Arts Alliance invests in Kenshoo to fund European expansion

Venture firm joins forces with existing investor Sequoia Capital

London, April 7, 2008 – Venture capital firm Arts Alliance announced today that it has completed an investment in Kenshoo Ltd (http://www.kenshoo.com), a leading provider of search engine marketing automated technologies.   The deal is Arts Alliance’s first investment in the fast growing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) space.  

Kenshoo, an Israel-based company which was founded in 2006, is a provider of search marketing automated technology for advertisers and agencies worldwide.  Its flagship product is KENSHOO SEARCH™ (http://www.kenshoo.com/kenshoo_search.asp), an end-to-end SEM solution which automates the creation and management of labour intensive search marketing campaigns.  KENSHOO SEARCH™ works with the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, thereby enabling the most comprehensive SEM management, optimisation and reporting.

Kenshoo's solutions allow customers to rapidly build and maintain effective search engine marketing campaigns and help them meet their advertising goals.  By removing the technical barriers for search engine marketing, KENSHOO SEARCH™ frees companies to focus on important strategic issues such as increasing traffic, raising conversion rates and improving ROI.

Arts Alliance is the second venture capital fund to invest in Kenshoo, joining leading US VC firm Sequoia Capital, who invested in the company in late 2007.  The investment by Arts Alliance will enable Kenshoo to develop its business in the UK and will provide a platform from which the company can increase its presence in the European SEM marketplace.  

Thomas Hoegh, Managing Partner of Arts Alliance and a Board Member of Kenshoo, said:
“We were impressed with Kenshoo because of its innovative approach to search engine marketing. This is a great team that has developed market-leading technology that solves the problems of online advertising by using a unique Quality Management approach.  Kenshoo has already built an impressive client list and we are excited to have the opportunity to help them expand its client base in Europe.”  

Yoav Izhar-Prato, CEO and co-founder of Kenshoo, adds:
“To have attracted another high calibre investor like Arts Alliance is an important endorsement of Kenshoo’s business and we believe they will be instrumental in helping Kenshoo to expand its market share both in the UK and in continental Europe.”

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Notes to editors

About Kenshoo Ltd
Kenshoo (http://www.kenshoo.com) is a provider of end-to-end search marketing automated technology for advertisers and agencies worldwide. The company's flagship product KENSHOO SEARCH™ provides automated Quality Management for cross- platform search campaigns. Kenshoo's unique technology and approach enables advertisers and agencies worldwide to reach high volumes, optimize campaigns and to boost ROI.

About Arts Alliance
Arts Alliance is a venture capital organisation dedicated to entrepreneurship in Europe. Arts Alliance aims to creatively and diligently support the development of innovative and high growth businesses. It offers a "hands on approach" to investment and work closely with entrepreneurs and managers to build great companies. Arts Alliance has advised on investments in over forty companies since 1996 including several UK Internet companies such as Lastminute.com, LOVEFiLM and Propertyfinder.