RatePoint Secures $7 Million in Series C Funding

NEEDHAM, Mass., Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- RatePoint Inc., a leading provider of customer reviews, testimonials and online reputation management services, today announced it has closed a $7 million Series C round of funding co-led by Prism VentureWorks of Needham, Mass., .406 Ventures of Boston, Mass. and Castile Ventures of Waltham, Mass.

"Today, online customer reviews and feedback are critical for anyone in business and business owners must be proactive about managing their reputation," said Neal Creighton, co-founder and CEO of RatePoint. "Rather than follow the same one-sided model that provides no voice for small businesses, we took a new approach to online feedback. Through RatePoint, small businesses can dialogue with their customers to improve customer service and grow their business."

RatePoint provides small businesses with the opportunity to participate in the online review process responding to unhappy customers or negative feedback before it's posted online. The RatePoint review process verifies actual consumer reviews for authenticity so businesses know they are communicating with one of their customers. Once authenticated reviews are collected, RatePoint provides a variety of solutions for small businesses to promote reviews to existing and potential customers. This includes the ability to showcase reviews via social media through features such as automatic posting of reviews to Facebook and Twitter.

The unique approach by RatePoint has been validated through a variety of awards. In 2009, RatePoint was named "Company Most Likely to be a Household Name in 5 Years" by MassNetComms Innovators Summit and selected as "Enterprise Video, Search and Social Media Sector Product of the Year." Additionally, Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) named RatePoint as a finalist in the Marketing and Customer Relationship Technologies category for the 6th Annual MITX Technology Awards and selected RatePoint as a winner in the 7th Annual MITX Technology Awards in the social media category.

"The RatePoint business model provides participation for both the customer and the business, which is the best case scenario for all," said Jim Counihan, general partner at Prism VentureWorks. "We look to invest in companies that bring a truly unique approach to the market and RatePoint has done that very successfully. We are very confident the value RatePoint brings to small businesses will continue to drive its rapid growth."

The funding round brings RatePoint to a total of $23.5 million since the company was launched by the founders of GeoTrust, a supplier of SSL and other solutions to secure e-business transactions purchased by VeriSign for $125 million in 2006.

About RatePoint Inc.

RatePoint Inc., the leading provider of customer reviews, testimonials and online reputation management services, helps businesses protect and build their online reputation, allowing businesses to harness the power of credible customer feedback and leverage it into a sales, marketing and customer service asset.

RatePoint's easy-to-use, Web-based communication services include customer feedback tools to collect business reviews and product reviews as well as email marketing, survey and dispute resolution capabilities to provide small- and medium-sized businesses with the ability to collect, manage and promote customer feedback directly from their Web site. For more information, contact us at: 888-777-1636 or visit: www.ratepoint.com.

SOURCE RatePoint Inc.