Zip2 Corp, Palo Alto, California specialist in Internet services for publishers, has won $12.1m in growth development funds from Knight-Ridder Inc and Softbank Corp’s Softbank Ventures Inc. The funds represent the second round of venture capital for for Zip2, which raised an initial $3.6m in March 1996 in a round led by Mohr, Davidow Ventures. The cash is earmarked for financing product development, infrastructure development and launch support for its media partners, and international expansion. Zip2 was formed with a mission to apply Internet technology to connect businesses to consumers in the simplest, most cost-effective way possible. The target market is newspapers and other media companies that want to help local businesses to reach consumers over the Internet. It is currently expanding its on-line services to include property listings, classified ads and arts and entertainment guides. Zip2 reckons that its flagship product is its on-line Yellow Pages, designed to offer door-to-door directions, up-to-the-minute information on local businesses and an Internet-to-facsimile gateway that enables Internet customers to do business with any company with a facsimile machine. The Zip2 Web site is at www.zip2.com.
