Facebook Secures $25M Investment

Greylock Partners Leads Investment to Support Facebook’s Continued Growth

PALO ALTO, CA – April 19, 2006 – Facebook, the Internet’s leading social utility, announced today that it has secured $25 million in funding. Greylock Partners led the financing while Meritech Capital Partners and Facebook’s existing investors Accel Partners and Peter Thiel also participated. Facebook’s website has grown to more than seven million people and, according to comScore, ranks as the seventh most trafficked site on the web. Facebook will use the funding to develop new features to enable people to easily share information in a trusted environment. People with a valid email address from a supported college or high school can register for Facebook and create a profile to share information, photos, and interests with their friends. “We’re building this company for the long term and this funding validates the viability of our business,” said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO, Facebook. “We’re still in the early stages of building Facebook. We’re constantly developing new functionality to make Facebook more useful and this funding will help accelerate our development efforts.” The most recent development was the launch of Facebook’s mobile functionality, which allows people to search for friends and get their contact information, message them, Poke them, and wall post to their Facebook profile. Facebook Mobile currently uses SMS technology so no browser or Internet connection is required. "Facebook has become an essential part of daily life and an important brand for an influential, hard-to-reach demographic," said David Sze, General Partner, Greylock Partners. “We’re excited about the value Facebook is creating for users and advertisers.”

Facebook was built to make it easy for people to share information with their friends in a trusted environment. By presenting people with information that is relevant to their lives, Facebook has become a part of many people’s daily routine. Two-thirds of registered people on Facebook come back to the site daily and, according to comScore, spend an average of 20 minutes a day sharing and gathering information. Since the beginning, Facebook has led the industry in delivering tools that allow people to control the information they share and with whom they choose to share it. Matters of privacy have been a top priority for Facebook, resulting in hiring a Chief Privacy Officer in September 2005. Facebook believes in protecting users’ privacy and has participated with such organizations as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, International Association of Privacy Professionals, and WiredSafety.