• SafetyWeb Acquires Odojo In Battle To Monitor The Youngsters

    Michael Arrington

    J. Michael Arrington (born March 13, 1970 in Huntington Beach, California) is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of TechCrunch, a blog covering startups and technology news. Arrington attended Claremont McKenna College (BA Economics, 1992) and Stanford Law School (JD, 1995) and practiced as a corporate and securities lawyer at two law firms: O’Melveny & Myers and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich... → Learn More

    Sunday, July 4th, 2010

    SafetyWeb, a service that lets parents monitor their children’s online social activities, has made its first acquisition – Colorado based Odojo. The companies are not disclosing the terms of the deal other than that it is an all cash transaction.

    In June SafetyWeb announced a $8 million funding round from Battery Ventures with First Round Capital, and the company has raised a total of $8.75 million.

    This appears to be a technology acquisition, and only one Odojo employee, an engineer, will be joining SafetyWeb. Founder Mike Stemple will join SafetyWeb as an advisor. Odojo’s technology will help SafetyWeb identify specific dangers by category, such as “drugs,” “sex,” “suicide,” “anorexia,” “hate,” etc.

    This is a space we’ve begun to cover more deeply. Parent anxiety over exactly what their kids are up to online means there’s lot of potential cash for anyone that gives them at least a basic level of monitoring. Last week we covered SocialShield, a less well funded competitor. And the New York TImes also took a look at the space yesterday. Expect intense competition over parents willing to pay a few dollars a month for some peace of mind.

    Company: SafetyWeb
    Website: safetyweb.com
    Launch Date: 2009
    Funding: $8.75M

    SafetyWeb develops cloud-­based, personal security products that help people protect their Privacy, Identity, Reputation and Safety.   SafetyWeb was founded in 2009 by Michael Clark and Geoffrey Arone.

    → Learn more
    Company: Odojo
    Website: odojo.com

    Odojo developed firebreakâ„¢ technology, allowing parents to monitor their children’s social networks for inappropriate content and the Internet for leaks of children’s personal information.

    → Learn more

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