Fathom Online received $6 million in financing in its first round of venture funding, the search marketing firm said yesterday.
The financing came from Constellation Ventures and private investors. As part of the funding, Constellation managing directors Virginia Turezyn and Dennis Miller will join Fathom's board of directors.
Former Ask Jeeves executives Chris Churchill and Chris Raniere founded the San Francisco-based search engine management firm in 2002. Fathom helps clients design and run paid search campaigns. Clients include Hilton, Covad and Microsoft. It opened a New York sales office in March.
The search engine marketing industry remains highly fragmented, as larger ad services companies have entered the space recently. DoubleClick bought affiliate and search marketing company Performics in May, and Digital Impact this month purchased SEM firm Marketleap.
Another search marketing firm, Efficient Frontier, recently launched its service after securing financing it pegged between $3 million and $5 million.
Fathom said it would use its funding for technology development and agency services.
