5min Raises $7.5 Million to Fuel its Video Syndication Network

Globespan Capital Partners and Spark Capital Invest in Series B Financing

NEW YORK, July 23 /PRNewswire/ --( )5min (www.5min.com), the leading syndication platform and destination for vertically focused broadband lifestyle, instructional and knowledge videos, today announced that it has secured $7.5 million in Series B financing. Led by new investor, Globespan Capital Partners, the round also includes existing investor, Spark Capital. Globespan Managing Director Jonathan Seelig will join 5min's Board of Directors.

5min syndicates its content through its semantic video engine, VideoSeed, and its proprietary video player to websites such as Answers, wikiHow, Wikia and Articlesbase and hundreds of vertical sites. The 5min platform collectively reaches a potential audience of over 200 million monthly unique visitors, and of this group, 14 million people watch at least one video per month. 5min has also built a multi-vertical content library of over 100,000 professionally produced videos through partnership with media companies such as Hearst Corporation's UGO Entertainment, Elle, Car & Driver, The Doctors, Pet Side, Britannica, Ford Models, Kiplinger, Big Think, WatchMojo, Road & Track, Woman's Day and more.

"While 5min has become the largest 'how-to' video destination site," says Ran Harnevo, CEO and co-founder of 5min, "we've also developed the only video platform that leverages a huge category-specific library to semantically syndicate the most relevant content to passionate audiences across the Web, wherever they exist. We provide every site publisher with professionally produced content, a video technology platform, and a full video monetization solution - all in one free offering."

With the financing, 5min will continue to grow its VideoSeed Semantic Syndication platform, which allows virtually any Web property to inject contextually relevant content, and a source of revenue from day one. The platform essentially creates scalable TV channels for brand-safe content across major categories--including, business, food, health, home, garden, sports, technology, travel and more--and will continue to scale with the new round of capital.

"5min is 2009's answer to the impact of cable on broadcast TV in the 1970s and 1980s, bringing advertisers the opportunity to sell into specific categories with ads that reach an engaged vertical audience across a wide range of Web sites in a single purchase," said Seelig. "A brand can essentially sponsor an entire niche of targeted, enthusiastic consumers."

"5min has beaten all of its milestones since we led the A Round, which include rapid growth in revenue, video views and syndication and content partners," said Spark Capital General Partner Alex Finkelstein. "We are very pleased to have Globespan and Jonathan Seelig join Spark as investors in 5min."

About 5min

5min is the leading syndication platform for lifestyle, knowledge and instructional videos, reaching over 200 million monthly unique visitors. As a destination site, 5min.com is the top "how-to" video site with more than 3.5 million unique visitors each month. 5min's library features short-form videos from some of the world's largest media companies as well as the most innovative independent producers. Video recipes, yoga and fitness routines, tech tutorials, DIY projects for home and garden, health videos on specific conditions, beauty and fashion tips, video game walk-throughs and much more. Go to http://solutions.5min.com for more information.

About Globespan Capital Partners

http://www.gasta.co.uk/Search/5min Partners is a leading global venture capital firm with over $1 Billion under active management. Globespan takes a balanced approach to investing with multi-stage investments in information technology and cleantech companies. Our investment team has a proven track record based on partnering with management teams to build strong, successful companies. We have significant experience and relationships in Asia which allows us to provide our portfolio companies access to global markets. With offices in Boston, Palo Alto and Tokyo, we invest in companies all across the U.S. and in Japan on behalf of a global base of limited partners. More information about Globespan Capital Partners is located online at www.globespancapital.com.

About Spark Capital

Spark Capital is a venture capital firm with investments focusing on the conflux of the media, entertainment and technology industries. The partners of Spark Capital carry diverse expertise in media and technology industries with proven track records identifying and actively building market-leading companies in sectors including infrastructure (Qtera, RiverDelta, Aether Systems, Broadbus and BigBand), networks (College Sports Television, TVONE and XCOM) services (Akamai, thePlatform, Admeld) and digital media (Twitter, Boxee, 5min). With a deep network that spans technology and media, investing and operations, Spark Capital provides world-class entrepreneurs and revolutionary companies with the resources to succeed in today's marketplace. Spark Capital has $622 million under management, and is based in Boston, Mass. To learn more, visit www.sparkcapital.com.