A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – MOBILE ADVERTISING
- SmartPipe Solutions, a platform to monetize customer profiles has raised $18.75M in Series A round of funding from Notion Capital, Finance Wales, Wren Capital, Delta Partners, and Comba Telecom. Link
- Fidzup, a retargeting platform for brick and mortar businesses has raised $3.5M in Series A round of funding from Cap Horn Invest, Turenne Capital, CapDecisif Management, and Petit Poucet Participation. Link
- xAd, a location-based mobile DSP has raised $42.5M in Series E round of funding from Eminence Capital, W Capital, IVP, and Emergence Capital. Link 14 Nov
- Singular, a platform for analytics on mobile marketing campaigns has raised $15M in Series A round of funding from KDWC, Translin Capital, Tesla Ventures, and General Catalyst. Link 10 Nov
- mParticle, a mobile data management and activation platform has raised $17.5M in Series B round of funding from Bain Capital and Social Capital. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
VR Product Placement (2016, Haarlem) – An ad network for product placement in VR applications to provide optimum retention.
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, $119M) – 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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