| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Data management |
| Fate | acquired (by Google in July, 2010) |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder(s) | Danny Hillis, Robert Cook |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, USA |
| Key people | Danny Hillis,Chairman Thomas Layton, CEO[1] Robert Cook, EVP, Product Development John Giannandrea, CTO |
| Products | Freebase — an online database |
| Website | www.metaweb.com |
Metaweb Technologies, Inc. was a United States company based in San Francisco that developed Freebase, described as an "open, shared database of the world's knowledge". The company was founded by Danny Hillis in July, 2005, and operated in stealth mode until 2007. Metaweb was acquired by Google in July, 2010[2]. Although Metaweb no longer exists as a separate corporate entity, Freebase and its associated website freebase.com continue to be provided as an open database under Metaweb's original CC-BY licensing terms.
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On March 14, 2006, Metaweb received $15 million in funding. Investors included: Benchmark Capital, Millennium Technology Ventures, and Omidyar Network.[3] Kevin Harvey of Benchmark Capital is a member of Metaweb's board of directors. On January 15, 2008, Metaweb announced a $42.5 million Series B round led by Goldman Sachs and Benchmark Capital.[4]
On July 16, 2010, Google acquired Metaweb for an unspecified sum.[5]