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Plaxo has raised $20.0M across 3 funding rounds.
Key people at Plaxo.
Plaxo has raised $20.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Plaxo developed a pioneering contact management platform, functioning as a "smart address book." This core offering automatically synchronized user contact information across various digital touchpoints, including email clients, social networks, and mobile devices. The system provided a unified, continuously updated repository for personal connections, directly addressing fragmented and outdated contact data online.
Founded in 2001 by Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring, both experienced in internet technology, Plaxo emerged from a critical insight. They recognized the pervasive problem of managing disparate and rapidly changing contact lists across the nascent internet. Their aim was to build an automated, self-updating system to efficiently maintain users' digital rolodexes.
Plaxo served individual internet users seeking a reliable method for organizing digital contacts. The company's vision centered on establishing an integrated personal information management system, ensuring accurate and accessible contact details across all user platforms. It aimed to provide a seamless, evergreen social graph, fundamentally simplifying digital communication.
Plaxo has raised $20.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
Plaxo's investors include Menlo Ventures.
Key people at Plaxo.
Plaxo was a pioneering online address book and contact synchronization service launched in 2002 that automatically updated users' contact information across devices and platforms.[1][3] It served individuals and professionals seeking to maintain current networks without manual effort, solving the problem of outdated contact lists in an era before seamless cloud syncing was ubiquitous.[1][4] Backed by venture capital like Sequoia, it grew to 20 million users by 2008 before Comcast acquired it, but struggled with user backlash over spammy update requests and failed to evolve into a broader social platform, leading to its shutdown on December 31, 2017.[1][3]
Plaxo was founded in 2001 (with official launch in November 2002) by Sean Parker—fresh off Napster—and Stanford engineering graduates Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring, who served as chief architects.[1][3][4] Parker envisioned it as "the precursor to social networking," creating software that auto-synced address book changes like new emails or phone numbers among connected users.[1][4] Rikk Carey joined early as EVP of engineering.[1] Funded initially with $1.8 million and later by Sequoia Capital, it gained traction at 10,000-12,000 users daily by 2004, but faced controversy over intrusive emails prompting updates, likened to spam.[1][3][4] Parker was ousted as president in 2004 amid erratic behavior and board tensions, including with investor Michael Moritz; leadership later shifted with Ben Golub as CEO (replaced 2010) and others.[1][3][5] Comcast acquired it in 2008 for an estimated $150-170 million, aiming for social features that never fully materialized.[1][3]
Plaxo rode the early 2000s wave of internet utilities transitioning to social connectivity, arriving just as email address books became fragmented across devices and amid Napster's fallout.[1][4] Its timing capitalized on growing personal networks but clashed with rising privacy concerns and spam fatigue, prefiguring GDPR-era tensions.[3] Market forces like emerging competitors (Facebook, MySpace) and free syncing in email clients eroded its edge, while Comcast's unclear integration post-2008 highlighted acquisition pitfalls for non-core tech.[1][3] It influenced the ecosystem by honing viral growth mechanics—Parker applied Plaxo lessons to Facebook's expansion and control structures—and spotlighted contact data's value, paving the way for CRM tools and social graphs.[3][4]
Plaxo exemplified startup volatility: innovative utility met execution hurdles, spam stigma, leadership churn, and failure to pivot amid social media's rise, culminating in shutdown.[3] Post-Comcast, its founders pivoted successfully—Ring and Masonis launched Dandelion Chocolate in 2010 from a garage, applying tech rigor (A/B testing roasting) to scale a bean-to-bar maker with waitlists and awards.[2] Parker advanced to Napster redemption via Facebook. No revival seems likely given commoditized syncing today, but Plaxo's legacy endures in data-sync standards and as a cautionary tale on user trust. Its story underscores how early movers shape giants while fading themselves, tying back to its role as social networking's overlooked precursor.[1][4]
Plaxo has raised $20.0M across 3 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $7.0M Series C in March 2004.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 1, 2004 | $7M Series C | — | Menlo Ventures | Announced |
| Jun 1, 2003 | $9M Series B | — | Menlo Ventures | Announced |
| Oct 1, 2002 | $4M Series A | — | — | Announced |
