Monetate, the platform that provides marketers with testing and targeting services for their websites, announced today that it has closed a $15 million series B funding round. The round was led by OpenView Venture Partners and adds to the $5.1 million series A round the company raised back in December from First Round Capital and FLOODGATE. The latest infusion of capital brings total investment to just over $20 million.

Monetate Co-founders David Brussin and David Brookspan, like many entrepreneurs, have dabbled in several industries. In 2001, Brussin co-founded ePrivacy Group, which created programs, standards and products to protect the email marketing channel; he then went on to found TurnTide, an anti-spam router, which was acquired by Symantec in 2004. By the time Brussin was ready to move on to his next venture, he said, the thing that stuck out the most was how little the position of marketers had changed since the 1990′s.

Marketers were still living in an eCommerce world where they had little control over their own advertising, in spite of the strides taken in display, and were relying on IT teams to take care of the dirty work. So, in 2008, Brussin and Brookspan founded Monetate to allow marketers to gain control over the consumer website experience without having to be expert coders or hire more engineers.

Through its cloud-based marketing platform, Monetate enables marketers to design and run messaging and promotional campaigns, as well as testing those campaigns in realtime before deployment. Traditionally, retailers and brands have looked to port the same experience that customers have in-store to their online storefronts, but, by and large, the customization options online have paled in comparison to their brick and mortar counterparts.

Monetate gives the marketer the ability to change any part of the customer-facing interface in realtime, for any particular customer. Marketers can go into the platform and select targeting for, say, people in New York. Monetate pulls realtime weather data from the Web, while simultaneously gathering the customer’s location data, so that a retail marketer knows that a customer is in New York, where the temperature is cold, thereby allowing marketers to change what’s being offered on the homepage to, say, sweaters and jackets — a targeted and personalized experience for that customer, in realtime.

The cool part of it is that Monetate gives marketers one line of Java code to add to their websites to enable these kind of targeted campaigns — users don’t have to be engineers, or at the office, to achieve this kind of functionality. Marketers, then, can be more spontaneous and focus on reacting to individual customers, testing ideas on the fly, rather than spending months testing campaign ideas, before slowly rolling those ideas out.

Monetate has already attracted brands like Petco, Urban Outfitters, Sports Authority, QVC, Casual Male, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and more, which are now using the startup’s targeting and testing services on their eCommerce platforms. Brussin tells me that many of the brands the team is currently working with have added hundreds of millions in revenue, thanks to Monetate cutting the need for businesses to hire specialized teams, as well as decreasing bounce rates and shopping cart abandonment.

As Monetate is analyzing the data from a customer’s every page view, the startup takes the big data challenges that would normally be the work of an IT staff out of the hands of retailers. Of course, staying on top of those reams of data is no easy task, and while Brussin says that the team prides itself on a near flawless up-time, the startup’s latest infusion of capital will be used to help scale those data systems — as well as scale its own staff and marketing efforts.

Monetate, the leading provider of testing, targeting, and personalization solutions for websites, today announced a $15 million Series B round of funding led by OpenView Venture Partners. Coming off a record year in 2010, Monetate is delivering dramatic results for clients like PETCO, Urban Outfitters, The Sports Authority, QVC, Casual Male Retail Group, GSI Commerce, Brookstone, L’Occitane, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

“Monetate has clearly established itself as the leading platform for website testing, targeting and personalization, and we are excited to partner with the Monetate team,” said Adam Marcus, Managing Director of OpenView Venture Partners. “We see Monetate as the ‘third leg of the stool’ for online marketers, alongside search and email, driving substantial incremental revenue for clients through website optimization that is directly under the control of marketing.”

“At Monetate our growth is fueled by the fact that we make it easy for marketers to change anything, anywhere on the website, for any customer, without having to go through IT,” said Monetate founder and CEO David Brussin. “We’re delighted to partner with OpenView Venture Partners to accelerate our growth and help even more organizations optimize the online customer experience.”

“We’re thrilled with the results we’ve attained since using Monetate’s solution,” said Bob Myers, CEO of Sheplers, a Monetate customer that has recently achieved rapid online revenue growth. “When you are trying to deliver the best possible website experience to each and every customer, with a minimum amount of pain, Monetate is a huge asset to have on your side.”

Monetate was founded in 2008 by technology industry veterans David Brussin and David Bookspan with a mission to let marketers control the consumer website experience without IT. The company has rapidly gained traction among leading online brands with its groundbreaking, cloud-based marketing platform.

Because Monetate lets marketers design and run multiple concurrent messaging and promotional campaigns while simultaneously testing them in real time, without having to rely on their IT department or hire specialized staff, the result is vastly improved marketing efficiency and website ROI. Internet Retailer Top 500 clients routinely see double digit increases in conversion rate, customer acquisition, average order value, and revenue per session, as well as big reductions in bounce rates and cart abandonment.

Monetate previously secured a Series A financing of $5.1M in 2010 from First Round Capital, Floodgate Fund and other institutional investors.

eEye Digital Security, a provider of IT security and unified vulnerability management solutions, today announced availability of Retina CS Mobility Connector, an add-on module that allows Retina CS management console customers to extend and unify vulnerability management to increasing numbers of consumerized mobile devices used to access corporate networks. Organizations that extend and unify mobile device vulnerability management into a single, Web-based security management console are able to gain a holistic view of their entire vulnerability profile, prioritize threats, and then take steps to remediate security and compliance risks.

“Consumerized IT devices such as smart phones and tablets are overwhelming enterprises. Organizations are struggling to find a way to identify, prioritize and remediate the added layer of complexity and risk these devices have added,” said Brad Hibbert, vice president, strategy, eEye. “Enterprise IT security teams need solutions that can provide effective mobile device vulnerability assessment while eliminating complexity. With Retina CS Mobility Connecter, our customers can extend proven assessment out to their mobile networks and manage everything from a central management console.”

Retina CS 2.5 Mobility Connector provides users with enhanced features and benefits.

• Agent-less technology allows Retina CS customers to extend vulnerability management capabilities to BlackBerry devices through the BlackBerry Management Server
• Vulnerability management capabilities allow Retina CS customers to scan, assess, and prioritize mobile application vulnerabilities on Blackberry devices
• Retina CS integration provides enterprise and mobile application vulnerability management through a single, Web-based console; single-console consolidation reduces management complexity and allows IT security teams to better prioritize their entire risk posture
• In addition to BlackBerry, Retina CS mobile add-on module will soon also provide agent-based and agent-less protection for the widest range of consumerized mobile devices on the market

eEye Digital Security, a provider of IT security and unified vulnerability management solutions, today announced availability of automated application patching available through its free Retina CS Community solution. Retina CS Community provides free patching for Microsoft applications, Mozilla/Firefox, and Adobe’s Distiller, Elements, Reader, Flash, and Shockwave. Retina CS Community automates and centralizes patch management via a single Web-based console, allowing IT security pros to reduce significantly the cost and complexity associated with patch management while optimizing remediation processes.

“Vulnerability management is no longer about vulnerability scanning alone. Enterprises need solutions that will allow them to not only find vulnerabilities but also fix them,” said Brad Hibbert, VP Strategy of eEye. “Our free solution will empower IT security professionals, allowing them to find and patch applications on their corporate network in the most efficient and cost-effective manner available.”

Retina CS Community provides users with many benefits for free.

• Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the patch process with integrated vulnerability assessment and patching in a single, free solution
• Automatically deploy and manage patches based on discovered vulnerabilities
• Reduce effort and expense via integrated, automated patching processes

Exinda, a global provider of WAN optimization solutions featuring Unified Performance Management (UPM), today announced the appointment of Robert H. Scott to Chairman of Exinda’s board of directors. Mr. Scott brings more than 30 years of executive experience in the technology industry.

Mr. Scott was invited to join Hewlett Packard in 2008 following its acquisition of Colubris Networks where he, as Colubris’ Chief Executive Officer, had navigated the transaction. He led the resulting business unit’s Worldwide Sales division to record numbers before taking over the incubation and growth of HP’s visual collaboration venture. Prior to Colubris, Mr. Scott led a number of technology companies including Xelor, which was acquired by Avaya. Most recently, Mr. Scott he has led five startups, two restarts and one internally-incubated venture.

In 2002, he achieved Ernst and Young’s Telecom Sector Entrepreneur of the Year and New Hampshire High Tech Council’s Entrepreneur of the Year after raising three rounds of funding and increasing Octave Communications’ revenues ten-fold.

“Exinda and our Board of Directors will benefit from Robert’s extensive knowledge and experience gained through his years in senior executive roles for large companies and his role in helping small companies to achieve their objectives. I am pleased to have the opportunity to work with him,” said Michael Sharma. Chief Executive Officer, Exinda.

Robert H. Scott is also currently serving as Board Director for Bradford Networks and Square 1 Bank, and sits on the Advisory Boards of Windspeed Ventures and White Glove Healthcare. He has supported the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Alumni Institute on the Advisory Council since 2002 and as National Judge since 2007.

Slingshot SEO, the company dedicated to providing digital relevance for deserving brands, is partnering with ExactTarget, a global provider of interactive marketing solutions, to offer a free webinar to enterprise companies looking for answers to their search engine optimization questions.

The webinar, set for Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2 pm, will be hosted by Slingshot SEO Chief Research Officer and company co-founder Jeremy Dearringer, and moderated by Joel Book, ExactTarget’s Director of eMarketing Education.

“In talking to enterprise businesses about interactive marketing; we encounter the same questions, such as how do I know which keywords to select that will produce the best ROI?” Dearringer explained. “This webinar will focus on helping brands better understand what impact a tight and strategic search engine optimization plan can have on their success.”

eEye Digital Security, a provider of IT security and unified vulnerability management solutions, today announced availability of Retina CS 2.5. This latest version of the eEye Retina CS unified vulnerability management platform provides customers with flexible risk scoring, broad exploit intelligence, integrated attack malware information, and enhanced risk reports and analytics. Enhancements and added features allow customers to improve vulnerability management efficiency and to better prioritize and remediate security risks based on their unique environments. The combination of new and enhanced capabilities allows customers to:

• Optimize remediation based on security and compliance risk thresholds
• Prioritize vulnerability risk based on exploit volumes
• Simplify reporting and analytics with prioritization heat maps and additional asset risk reports
• Improve asset risk prioritization based on malware and attack information
• Improve vulnerability management efficiency with additional grouping and rule options, enhanced patch management, and interactive reporting

“Many organizations fail to address their most critical security weaknesses, spending time and money correcting relatively minor security problems,” said Eric Ogren, principal and founder of the Ogren Group. “Security risk prioritization is an indispensable element of any pragmatic IT security and compliance strategy. Enterprises need solutions that will allow them to prioritize so that they can quickly and easily close the most dangerous security gaps in their networks.”

Retina CS 2.5 Enhancements and Associated Benefits:

• Flexible Risk Scoring: Refine CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) based on business, assets, and risk appetite.
• Broad Exploit Intelligence: Identify whether a vulnerability has an associated exploit from Core, Metasploit, or Exploit Database to improve risk prioritization.
• Integrated Attack and Malware Information: See malware and attack data — including attacks from third-party solutions — to improve asset risk prioritization.
• Enhanced Risk Reports and Analytics: New vulnerability prioritization heat map and additional asset risk reports improve allocation of resources for remediation tasks.
• Updated PCI 2.0 Scoring and Reporting: Automated PCI reporting available via a redesigned PCI scoring and reporting format that complies with PCI 2.0 requirements.
• Additional Smart Groups and Rule Options: Extended library of built-in Smart Groups with more filtering and action options including “virtual servers and desktops,” “alert on vulnerability,” “open tickets,” and “assign tickets.”
• Patch Management Enhancements: Improved patch management user interface streamlines patch remediation and reporting.
• Interactive Reporting: More reports available that include even more flexibility and customization with enhanced usability, summary metrics, and interactive drilldown.

“Recent high-profile hacks that successfully compromised several organizations underscore the need for effective vulnerability management. If these organizations would have had the ability to better identify their weakest links, they may have been able to repel the attacks,” said Brad Hibbert, vice president, strategy, eEye. “Retina CS 2.5 empowers IT security teams, allowing them to pinpoint weaknesses and to quickly close the gaps that hackers thrive on.”

Availability:

Retina CS 2.5 is available now. For more information visit: www.eeye.com/Products.aspx.

Security in Context:

Security is not a one-size-fits-all operation. Security solutions today need to take the fear and hype out of security and provide straightforward solutions — in the context of each organization’s unique needs. As part of eEye Digital Security’s mission to keep security in context, Retina CS 2.5 provides new contextual features for organizations to define, prioritize, and remediate security risks more efficiently. In addition to this new product, this week eEye will also announce the availability of Retina CS Mobility Connector and free patching for the Retina Community product.

Central Desktop, provider of the industry-leading cloud-based social collaboration platform for businesses, today launched its new program for non-profits, Central Desktop Gives. This newly created program helps non-profits communicate and collaborate better by donating Central Desktop’s online collaboration solution to select qualified applicants.

Non-profits often struggle with not having the resources they need to effectively work together to accomplish their organizations’ missions. Central Desktop Gives’ goal is to help non-profits connect volunteers, manage projects, centralize communication and organize events. Qualified nonprofits are invited to apply for the program. Applications are accepted on a quarterly basis and will be evaluated by the Central Desktop Gives selection committee, which will choose one winner every quarter. The deadline to submit an application for this quarter is September 30, 2011.

As part of Central Desktop Gives, the company is also launching an employee volunteer program that grants all Central Desktop employees eight hours of paid volunteer time per year. Additionally, Central Desktop is awarding a $500 donation every quarter to a nonprofit of an employee’s choice.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to give back to the community through Central Desktop Gives,” said Isaac Garcia, CEO and co-founder of Central Desktop. “We recognize the benefits our collaboration solution can have for non-profit organizations, and we want to do our part to help. Our goal is to help as many deserving organizations as possible through our contributions, product donations and employee volunteer program.”

Central Desktop Gives’ first solution donation recipient is the Society of Women Engineers – Santa Clara Valley Section (SWE-SCV), an organization dedicated to providing encouragement and support to current, retired and future women engineers. The Society of Women Engineers offers professional development programs and leadership opportunities that promote the success of women in the engineering workforce.

“As volunteers, members of the SWE-SCV executive council must balance full-time employment commitments with their dedication to advancing SWE’s mission,” said Charisma Canlas, vice president of member services and social technologies strategist. “Technology solutions like Central Desktop improve communication within SWE’s geographically dispersed organization by centralizing our activities, discussions and documents. We use Central Desktop to improve organizational efficiency, track progress of ongoing initiatives and maintain an archive of collateral so nothing is ever lost.”