Mediaboss Marketing

By Lora Kolodny

Donutshas raised more than $100 million in a mammoth Series A round, not to make crispy, dunk-able diet killers, but to become a registry for generic top-level domains or gTLDs, a new type of unique, online identifier.

The round was led by Austin Ventures and joined by Adams Street Partners, Emergence Capital, TL Ventures, Generation Partners, Stahurricane (founder and Chief Executive Paul Stahuras own venture fund) and a number of angels and other funds.

Web industry associations and regulators limit the number of top level domain names to 22 types today, including .com, .edu and .net. Stahura says businesses and bloggers alike should be able to secure memorable addresses more affordably when the gTLDs become available.

Right now its difficult to find a good name, a memorable name in .com, he said. We will provide specificity and choice. If youre a doctor, lets say, you could get .doctor. If you have a small cleaning business you might get .cleaning.

Donuts Vice President of CommunicationsMason Cole pointed out that in one recent domain name sale, PersonalLoans.com sold for $1 million. Thats a lot to spend on a used name, he said, What if the buyer had access to personal.loans instead?

Donuts applied to secure and operate 307 different new domains, none of which are phrases that are geographic (like .nyc) or trademarked (like .microsoft), Stahura reports.

It is not clear who the company will be in contention with to obtain swathes of gTLDs from the non-profit entity that doles them out,ICANN(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). An announcement about who applied for which names is due on June 13. Some companies and organizations, from AARP to Googleand Zippo, have already disclosed which names they want to obtain (a list is available athttp://thetoplevel.com).

ICANNs mission is to keep the Internet operable and secure through coordination of its naming system. Last week, it closed the window for applications to acquire gTLDs.

Despite Donuts broadly appealing brand name, the start-up will not sell to mainstream web users, rather to registrars, or the retailers of domain names. These retailers include Superbowl advertisers likeGoDaddy,Register.comorTucows.com(better known as Hover). They also include eNom, the company Stahura founded earlier in his career and sold in 2006 to Demand Media.

Link:
Donuts Raises $100M-Plus To Deliver ‘Dot-Anything-You-Want’ Domain Names

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A startup named Donuts has raised US$100 million in venture capital and has applied for 307 generic top-level domains in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' open gTLD application process, the company said Tuesday.

Donuts' gTLD applications are for generic, dictionary terms, said Jon Nevett, a cofounder and vice president of corporate affairs at the company. Donuts, based in Bellevue, Washington, will serve as a domain-name registry, a wholesale seller of domain names within the gTLDs it buys, he said.

ICANN launched the new gTLD program in January amid objections that the sale of new domains would cause headaches for trademark owners. The new program will allow new TLDs such as .hotel or .bank, as well as gTLDs in non-Latin characters, in addition to current gTLDs such as .com and .info.

Donuts expects few problems in the process of buying the gTLDs, Nevett said. The company has not applied for gTLDs featuring any trademarked names, he said. If there's more than one legitimate application for a new gTLD, ICANN can hold an auction.

"We'd be increasing the real estate on the Internet," Nevett said. "We think they're good, generic terms that will give consumers more choice and benefits."

The new domains will be targeted toward specific services, he said. Donuts gave an example of .tickets, a gTLD where Web users could expect to go to buy event tickets. "There will be more names geared toward what consumers are looking for," he said.

The new gTLDs would likely go live in 2013, Nevett said.

Donuts' announcement, the largest application made public so far, shows pent-up interest in new gTLDs, said Alexa Raad, CEO of Architelos, a TLD marketing consultancy. "The smart money has already followed some of these opportunities," she said.

Applying for multiple domains may be smart, as it gives Donuts bargaining power in the long process after the ICANN reveals the applications June 13, she said.

As of last Wednesday, ICANN had about 1,900 applications for new gTLDs, and several gTLDs will likely have multiple applications, Raad said. Companies with multiple applications may be able to partner with others that want the same gTLD or make agreements to drop some competing applications, she said.

Original post:
Startup applies for 307 generic top-level domains

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Donuts Inc., a registry for new top-level domain names, has moved assertively to expand Internet namespace with 307 applications for new and varied generic top-level domains (TLDs) in various character sets. The expansion will bring significant new industry competition and fresh choices for Internet end-users who need better, more specific domain names for their products and services.

The companys efforts are funded by more than $100 million in capital from multi-billion dollar private equity and venture funds. Donuts executives say they intend to deploy capitaland raise additional funding if necessaryto secure and operate each applied-for TLD.

Donuts effort will expand currently constrained namespace

The now-concluded application period for new Internet names follows the Internet communitys six-year, multi-stakeholder effort to expand consumer choice and competition in top-level domain options beyond .COM, .NET and other extensions. The current namespacethe fulcrum of commercial online navigationis badly constrained, and consumers and businesses need new options for Internet identities.

Finding a usable Internet address is a real problem. There are more than 125 million total names in the top five TLDs, with three fourths of them in .COM alone, said Donuts CEO Paul Stahura. The Internet was opened for worldwide use almost 20 years ago, and weve had only 22 generic names made available since then. Were overdue for expansion.

Stahura also anticipates strong competition to the currently dominant .COM extension. This expansion is going to be disruptive in a positive sense. Theres no question competition is coming to .COM and other TLDshow much of the market the new TLDs will take from them is what remains to be seen.

A well-resourced company

Donuts has raised significant capitalmore than $100 millionfrom notable sources, including:

Donuts has further obtained a senior secured revolving credit facility with Comerica Bank, one of the United States premier banking organizations.

Link:
Donuts Launches Domain Namespace Expansion with 307 gTLD Applications, More Than $100 Million in Funding

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