Nominum – Profile
HQ: Redwood City, CA
Founded: 1999
Management: Chris Risley was previously CEO of NewChannel, an e-business service provider as well as ON Technology, a network software maker that had an IPO in 1995. David Conrad is the founder and CTO. Prior to founding the company, he was the Executive Director of the Internet Software Consortium (ISC), and oversaw the development of Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) version 9, whatever that is.
Investors: The company recently raised $16M with total investments to date standing at $45M. Investors: Advanced Technology Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners, Presidio Venture Partners and Silicon Valley Bank.
Business Model: Nominum is focused on next generation domain name challenges, including the growth of scams that target domains and the explosion in VoIP, which requires more sophisticated domain name structures. It sells software that helps carriers manage IP names and addresses. The trick is for the software to quickly and efficiently match queries and records – quicker speeds mean less costs for carriers and, in fact, the company boasts it can reduce costs by 75%.
Competitors: MetaInfo, INS, Lucent
Dirt: As VoIP grows, so grows Nominum, and that’s awfully quickly. We don’t see any competitors emerging who have the experience of Nominum’s management team in dealing with the Internet’s skunkworks.
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