ProQuo Secures $8 Million in Series B Funding

Few months back I wrote about a startup called ProQuo which helps you by stopping junk emails that you are probably receiving daily in hundreds. Recently ProQuo,a company founded to give consumers meaningful choice over how businesses use their personal information, announced it has received a second round of financing.

Mission Ventures led the $8 million round, with Series A investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson returning to invest again. Leo Spiegel, a managing partner for Mission Ventures, joins the ProQuo board of directors.

Founded in 2006, ProQuo helps consumers manage how businesses use their personal information―like their name, address, credit worthiness and buying habits―to market to them. The free service, available at www.proquo.com, helps consumers reduce paper junk mail and protect against identity theft. Any information a consumer provides to ProQuo is owned by the consumer and is never shared without that consumer’s express consent.

“Although ProQuo’s initial service is focused on postal junk mail, we invested in a much larger market opportunity. With a ten billion dollar industry profiting from the trading and selling of consumers’ personal information—without their knowledge or consent—ProQuo is well-positioned to build a business designed to serve consumers’ needs and interests in how companies market to them,” said Leo Spiegel of Mission Ventures.

CEO Steven Gal joined ProQuo from ID Analytics, Inc., a leader in identity risk management, which he co-founded. The seasoned management team also brings strong experience from such companies as Experian, Visa, HNC Software (acquired by Fair Isaac), and AltaVista/Overture Services (acquired by Yahoo!). ProQuo secured Series A funding of $5 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 2006 and launched its initial service in October 2007.

“Americans get nearly four million tons of junk mail every year,” said Steven Gal, CEO of ProQuo. “By empowering consumers to get control of their postal mail, ProQuo is reducing their exposure to identity theft and protecting their privacy while helping the environment—and all for free.”

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