Friday, June 20, 2008

OwnerIQ has drawn up its own manual for its $6M funding

By Christopher Calnan

Plenty of companies operate websites giving advice about consumer products. But Boston-based OwnerIQ Inc. operates sites designed to help consumers after they’ve brought products home.

The company, founded in 2006, operates websites through OwnerIQ.net designed to enable users to locate an operations manual or advice on topics such as how to prepare a snowblower for the winter.

Earlier this month, OwnerIQ closed on a $6 million Series B round of funding that CEO Jay Habegger said he plans to use to expand the website’s features and establish more advertising deals. Investors include Waltham-based Atlas Venture, Boston-based Egan-Managed Capital and the Massachusetts Technology Development Corp., a quasi-public private-equity and economic development office based in Boston.

Habegger founded OwnerIQ with former colleagues from Boston’s Bitpipe Inc., a network of IT and business websites acquired in 2004 by Needham-based TechTarget Inc. for $40 million. Habegger, Bitpipe’s CEO, founded the company in 1998.

OwnerIQ, which he established in 2006 as Most Effective Media Inc., aggregates manufacturer information with publications such as user manuals, creates product-specific forums for consumers, and produces its own editorial content on topics such as where to place a sub-woofer speaker in a room.

OwnerIQ joins several local tech companies that operate consumer-advice websites with a mix of self-generated and user-contributed content. Needham-based TripAdvisor LLC operates several travel-related websites for consumers; in 2006, Cambridge-based CarGurus LLC established a website for car buyers and owners. Last month, Cambridge-based Zeer Inc. launched a beta version of its online community for foodies called zeer.com.

OwnerIQ reported that it attracts about 2 million unique visitors per month. The website’s top category is consumer electronics, followed by cold-food storage appliances such as refrigerators, Habegger said.

The recent financing increases OwnerIQ’s total financing to $8 million. It completed a $2 million Series A round of funding in October 2007. OwnerIQ generates its revenue from advertising based on the content that website users read, Habegger said.


ccalnan@masshightech.com | 617-241-4337