Time Warner Invests in Google Rival

MOUNTAIN VIEW, December 9:
Kosmix, a search startup founded by Internet entrepreneurs
Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, has raised $20 million in a funding
round led by Time Warner, bringing its total backing to $55 million.

Time Warner's
investment adds to $35 million raised from venture capitalists, including Accel
Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Dag Ventures earlier this year. In
addition, Kosmix has tapped Ed Zander, the former chairman and CEO of Motorola,
as a private investor and advisor to the company. He joins existing investors
Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and Bill Miller of Legg Mason.

Kosmix
organizes the Internet by topic for web navigation. The beta version of the
search engine, which launched yesterday, lets users explore search results in a
"dashboard"-style page with videos, photos, news, opinion and communities
of the search topic. Kosmix plans to monetize its site by adding ads to its
results pages, similar to Google's AdWords program. The website will also
include AdWords results.

"At
Kosmix, our mission is to connect people with the information that makes a
difference in their lives," said Harinarayan. "As the Internet
evolves, consumers want to explore everything the online world has to offer. We
created Kosmix to be their guide. Our track record and new funding puts us in a
strong position to offer millions of consumers a new direction in interacting
with the web."

"Kosmix's
technology and the company's innovations around the traditional online
publishing model could represent a paradigm shift in how targeted content is
delivered to consumers," said Rachel Lam, the senior VP and group managing
director of Time Warner Investments. "As such, Kosmix could be an
important strategic partner to many divisions of Time Warner. Kosmix's
management team is at the forefront of a new online business model, one that
goes beyond banner ads to reach consumers at the moment when they are most
receptive and engaged, and importantly, one that should continue to generate
strong revenue growth, even in today's challenging economic environment."

—By
Kristin Brzoznowski