• TechCrunch, Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:15 PM

Sequoia Capital, a VC firm known for its early-stage investments in powerhouses like Google, Yahoo and Apple, has reportedly poured at least $1 million into Kenshoo, an Israeli startup in the SEM automation space.

Much like Clickable, Kenshoo's services aim to streamline the bid management process, and also provide actionable advice on how to better optimize campaigns with different keywords, among other options. While Kenshoo is going up against giants in the space like Omniture and aQuantive's Atlas Solutions, it is likely that its focus is on the "longer tail" of businesses -- where there is still considerable room for smaller SEM automation firms to gain traction.

Though financial details were not disclosed, this is the company's first official round of funding (it raised about a million dollars from angel investors). And Sequoia Capital partner Yuval Baharav will take a seat on Kenshoo's Board of Directors.

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