SAN FRANCISCO--1-16-07--Piczo, an online social network that provides a safe and creative environment for teen self-expression, today announced $11 million in funding led by U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) and Mangrove Capital Partners. Piczo's existing investors - Sierra Ventures and Catamount Ventures - are also participating in the Series C financing.

Piczo will use the additional capital to continue its worldwide expansion, deliver new tools that empower teens to build their own personal online communities in a safer online environment, and expand its relationships with strategic partners and advertisers.

"Millions of teens have chosen Piczo as their online destination for self-expression and communication," said Jeremy Verba, CEO, Piczo, Inc. "The funding from USVP and Mangrove Capital validates our strategy of expanding globally to reach the highly-desirable teen demographic. One of the things we're most excited about is that we're attracting funding from both the US and Europe to execute this strategy.

"We are attracted to Piczo's approach for a safer online environment in the social networking space. The demographic that Piczo has attracted, the younger teen audience, is quickly claiming the web as their own medium. Marketers and media companies covet this demographic and we are pleased to be part of Piczo's continued growth," said Paul Matteucci, general partner, U.S. Venture Partners.

"Teens today control billions of dollars of spending worldwide. Understanding this demographic and knowing how to market to them online is a skill that Piczo can bring to its partners and advertisers," said Gerard Lopez, managing partner, Mangrove Capital Partners. "Seeing Piczo's continued growth in Europe demonstrates that the company has a successful business plan to build upon."

Piczo continues to extend its reach in the social networking space with more than 10 million monthly unique visitors worldwide. Predominantly popular among teens in Europe and North America, Piczo offers video and photo-sharing, enhanced multi-media capabilities, and fully customizable user pages for enhanced online self expression and communication between friends.

With an invite-only platform and no user search capabilities, Piczo has created a safer alternative to other social networking sites, allowing users to have more control and prevent unwanted communication. Piczo also works with parents, safety experts and law enforcement to assist in protecting user privacy and safety.

Notes to Editors

About Piczo, Inc.

Piczo empowers teenagers worldwide to creatively express themselves, build personal communities, and share ideas and experiences with their friends in a safer online environment. Piczo's customizable content, colorful graphics, glitter text, video, games, and photo editing tools spotlight member creativity without requiring any technical know-how. Piczo has offices in San Francisco, New York, and London.

Piczo facts

• More than 28 million registered user accounts and over 12 million monthly unique visitors generating over one billion monthly page views
• Created for teenagers worldwide, Piczo users are typically 13 to 16 years old
• A top 40 site in overall world rankings by monthly page views

About U.S. Venture Partners

U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) is a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build world-class companies that are leaders in their industry. USVP focuses on early stage opportunities in sectors where the Partners have the domain expertise, operating experience and network of relationships to provide meaningful contribution to the success of the enterprise. These sectors include digital communications and networking systems, internet and eCommerce structure, semiconductors and optical components, enterprise and technical software, and medical devices and biopharmaceuticals.

About Mangrove Capital Partners

Based in Luxembourg, Mangrove Capital Partners is committed to turning entrepreneurial visions into realities as a means to drive capital appreciation for investors. Mangrove's hands-on philosophy in all areas of business and technological development is the cornerstone of the company's investment strategy. The firm invests across Europe and was one of the early investors in Skype.