Perceptual Networks Receives Funding from First Round Capital and Founders of YouTube, PayPal, Rackspace and Others

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Perceptual Networks, a technology company in Philadelphia, today announced that it has received funding from First Round Capital and a "who's who" of Internet entrepreneurs and angel investors, including founders of YouTube, PayPal, Rackspace, Bebo, Demand Media and others. (A list of investors can be found below.)

“This is something that Jim and I have been talking about since the day we met”

The company was founded by Jim Young, who previously founded both HotOrNot and I/O Ventures, and serial entrepreneur Cheyenne Ehrlich.

Perceptual Networks is developing a suite of products that make it easy for people to find the people they best connect with, whether they are looking for the right co-workers or employees, the right relationship, the right friends and activity partners or the right community to live in.

"This is something that Jim and I have been talking about since the day we met," said Cheyenne Ehrlich, founder and CEO of Perceptual Networks. "Your community, friends, co-workers and life partner, if you have one, collectively have such a huge impact on the quality of your life. We want to make the process of finding and developing that community of people as easy as possible, for everyone."

"This is a great thing for Philly," said Josh Kopelman, founder of First Round Capital. "With HotOrNot, Jim created one of the most viral products in history. And Cheyenne has been an innovator in tech for more than 15 years. It’s nice to see teams like this coming together here.”

Jim Young, founder and CTO of Perceptual Networks, added, “It is great to be working on interesting and challenging engineering problems that have such a material impact on people’s lives. These are the kinds of things engineers love to work on, and we’re excited to be creating more jobs like this and doing it here in Philadelphia.”

Investors in Perceptual Networks include First Round Capital, Bullpen Capital and some of Silicon Valley's best-known entrepreneurs and investors, including:

Max Levchin (founder of PayPal and Slide and Chairman of Yelp),
Steve Chen (founder of YouTube and AVOS),
Michael Birch (founder of Bebo and Monkey Inferno)
Richard Yoo (founder of Rackspace and ServerBeach)
Shawn Colo (founder of Demand Media)
Joshua Schachter (founder of Tasty Labs and Delicious)
Alexis Ohanian (founder of Reddit)
James Hong (founder of HotOrNot)
Philip Kaplan (founder of Fandalism, Blippy, AdBrite, TinyLetter and many, many more)
Naval Ravikant (founder of Epinions and AngelList)
Tikhon Bernstam (founder of Scribd and Parse)
Garry Tan (founder of Posterous and Partner at Y-Combinator)
Gabriel Weinberg (founder of DuckDuckGo and NamesDatabase)
Jameson Hsu (founder of Mochi Media)
Bob Ippilito (founder of Mochi Media)
Ken Keller (founder of IGN.com and Cadence)
Paul Bragiel (partner at I/O Ventures)
Tom McInerney (former COO at Klout)
Bill Lee (founder of Remarq and Social Concepts and investor in Tesla)
Nils Johnson (founder of Beautylish)

About Perceptual Networks

Perceptual Networks is a technology company founded by Jim Young, founder of HotOrNot and I/O Ventures, and serial entrepreneur Cheyenne Ehrlich. Perceptual Networks is headquartered in Philadelphia and is backed by some of the web's smartest investors and entrepreneurs. The company has a proprietary platform for developing consumer web applications that make it easier for people to “find their people.”

The company's web site can be found at www.perceptualnet.com.