Socializr, the online event company, raises $1.5M

September 11, 2007 | Matt Marshall | Comments |

Updated

Socializr, the San Francisco start-up that lets you share information about parties and other events online, has raised $1.5 million in a second round of financing.

The backer is Rembrandt Venture Partners, a Menlo Park, Calif. venture capital firm.

Socializr founder Jonathan Abrams (top) knew Rembrandt partner Richard Ling (bottom) prior to launching Socializr, from partying together in SF nightclubs and other events. Abrams said this time he wanted an investor who understood to the product and users of Socializr, and Ling fits the bill.

At his previous company, Friendster, significant misunderstandings between Abrams and his investors contributed to the downfall of Friendster as a leader in social networking. A New York Times story about the debacle suggested that, among other things, Friendster investors from Kleiner Perkins and Benchmark didn’t really understand the business.

Socializr last year raised $750,000 from a number of angel investors. We first reviewed the company here. Recently the company has tussled with industry leader, Evite. That company accused Socializr of copying some of its art work.

“Most VCs live in Woodside, and hang out at Bucks,” Abrams said, referring to the restaurant on Woodside Road where many VCs meet for breakfast. “Richard’s more hip.”

Socializr has just hired three people, doubling its staff to six. Until recently, Abrams had written every line of software himself. Abrams promises “a lot of cool stuff” from Socializr over the next couple of months.

Update: Here’s Abrams’ comment on Evite:

Evite accused Socializr of infringing upon Evite’s general look and feel, even though that is not protected by copyright. They also complained that a graphic containing snowflakes in a design on Socializr was too similar to a completely different image on Evite which also contained snowflakes (and turned out to be clipart you can buy for $99). One was not a copy of the other. They also complained about two images from Evite that apparently had been uploaded by Socializr users (but not by Socializr itself) to user-generate designs. We only found one of them, and removed it, as per the DMCA. We never copied any of their art work.

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