A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – MOBILE ADVERTISING
- Kiip, a loyalty platform to reward customers through mobile gaming and apps has raised $12M Series C funding from North Atlantic Capital, US Cellular, True ventures, Relay Ventures, Verizon Ventures, HWVP. Link
- Madberry, a programmatic ad platform for promoting mobile games has raised $1M seed funding from SMRK VC Fund, Viewster. Link
- Moloco, provides ad network to enable advertisers to reach over virtual audience network built with 1st party and owned data has raised $6.57M as per SEC filing. Link
- Parsec, a cost per second based mobile ad network has raised $1.5M Seed funding from Angel investors. Link
- Verve Mobile, a location based mobile advertising network has raised $30M in Debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank. Link
- Parrable, provides cookie-less device identification system and interactive, gamified ad units has raised $2.48M as per SEC filing. Link
- Pokkt Money, a reward based ad platform operated by Pokkt which is a video ad platform for mobile games, has been acquired by Adways, a Japanese mobile marketing company. Link
- Roximity, a beacon powered location based advertising platform has been acquired by verve Mobile, location based mobile ad network for an undisclosed amount. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
VadR (2016, Gurgaon) – Mobile advertising network for Virtual Reality which can integrate ad formats from traditional ad networks while preserving their functionality. Also offers VR focused analytics metrics and VR essentials kit.
LEADER BOARD – MOBILE ADVERTISING
Creatives
Crisp Media (2003, NYC, $16M) – Produces rich media creative units, serves campaigns across all devices and OS types and provides detailed analytics to inform campaign optimization. Backed by EDB Investments, Intel Capital, Meritage Funds.
Demand Side Platform
xAd (2009, NYC, $97M) – xAd is a location based Demand Side Platform which also provides analytics solution to marketers. Backed by SoftBank, Silicon Valley Bank, EMCap Partners.
Ad Network
Millennial Media (2006, Baltimore, IPO, Acq) – Independent mobile ad-platform and data company that partners with advertisers, app developers and mobile operators to reach consumers at scale. Went public in March 2012. Acquired by AOL in 2015.
Ad Exchange
Nexage (2000, Boston, $19.5M, Acq) – Provides mobile RTB, mobile private exchange, exchange based data solution which delivers behavioral, location data to buyers. Backed by GrandBanks Capital, Relay Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Singtel. Acquired by Millennial Media in 2014.
Supply Side Platform
Smaato (2005, SF, $43M, Acq) – Provides mobile RTB ad exchange and SSP for mobile app developers and publishers and offers open API and SDKs to integrate with ad network and DSP. Backed by Singapore Press Holdings, EDB Investments, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Aeris Capital. Acquired by Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communications Group in 2016.
Native Ad Platform
Polar (2007, Toronto, $9M) – Provides a suite of solutions such as MediaVoice which is used by publishers around the world to serve native advertising and sponsored content to their readers and track the ads as well. Backed by Georgian Partners, Blue Sky Capital.
Ad Serving Platform
Medialets (2008, NYC, $33M, Acq) – Third-party ad serving and rich media ad platform that enables brands, agencies and publishers to create, deliver and measure mobile and tablet campaigns. Backed by Foundry Group, 500 Startups, DFJ Gotham VC, Greenspring Associates. Acquired by WPP in 2015.
Data Management Platform
NinthDecimal (2003, SF, $47M) – Mobile audience intelligence platform which uses both data and proprietary technology to construct customized audience segments. Backed by DFJ, Comcast Ventures, Trident Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Panorama Capital.
Analytics
Marchex (2000, Seattle, IPO) – Delivers new customer phone calls to businesses and analyzes the data in these calls to improve ad campaign results. Went public in March 2004.
Retargeting
TVSmiles (2013, Berlin, $13M) – Tracks TV ads being watched by user and pushes relevant advertising content into user mobile phones. Backed by MAGIX, Ventech, SevenOne Media, Omnes Capital, German Startups, Ventech, e.ventures.
Attribution
4INFO (2004, San Mateo, $63M) – Provides mobile attribution and audience targeting solutions to publishers, agencies and brand advertisers. Backed by DFJ Ventures, Gannett, Sand Hill Capital, US Venture Partners, Peacock Equity, Selby Ventures, Mitsui Global, Rogers Venture Partners, Avid Bank.
DeepLinking
URX (2012, SF, $15M, Acq) – Allows mobile developers to create cross-platform links inside the apps and create deeplink enabled ad units. Backed by Accel Partners, Maverick, Y Combinator, CyberAgent Ventures, Greylock, SV Angel, First Round, Fuel Capital, Google Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures, Betaworks, Start-Up Chile. Acquired by Pinterest in 2016.
Enabler
Factual (2007, LA, $61M) – Global location data provider and creates user profiles using geo-behavioural pattern of audience. Backed by Founder Collective, SV Angel, Heritage Group, Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis,Data Collective, Index Ventures, Miramar Ventures, Haystack Partners, Upfront, Altpoint Ventures.
Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.
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