A startup founded by domain name experts has raised $100 million in venture capital as it looks to score in the upcoming generic top-level domain name bonanza.
Donuts Inc. is backed by Austin Ventures, Adams Street Partners, Emergence Capital Partners, TL Ventures, Generation Partners and Stahurricane, as well as a credit facility from Comerica Bank.
The Bellevue, Washington company plans to sell domain names wholesale to registrars such as GoDaddy, Network Solutions and the like. ICANN, the governing body for domain names, is opening up domain names beyond “.com” and “.net” and enabling companies to apply for the right to sell top level domains. Donuts has applied for 307 such top level domains. The company wouldn’t say which ones, but they could include “.magazine” or “.restaurant”. ICANN plans to reveal which companies have won the rights to sell the domains on June 13.
Each application for a top level generic domain costs $185,000, so the funding is necessary for the company to make all the applications.
Businesses and organizations are demanding this expansion into a larger group of domain names because there are jsut not enough domains available anymore with the existing top level domains, says Dan Schindler, co-founder and executive vice president, sales and marketing at Donuts. ”This will significantly widen the choice for Internet identities,” Schindler says.
Donuts’ cofounder and CEO is Paul Stahura, who previously sold his domain name company eNom to Demand Media in 2006 and became president and chief operating officer at Demand Media. Richard Tindal, co-founder and chief operating officer of Donuts, was previously head of NeuStar’s domain name registry business.
Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/06/05/cash-domain-name-wholesaler-donuts-raises-100-million/. Creative Commons (CC)
