A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – MOBILE ADVERTISING
- RNTS Media has acquired Inneractive, a RTB enabled mobile ad exchange for $72M. Link
- Yellow Pages has acquired Juice Mobile, programmatic mobile advertising company for $35M. Link
- ClicksMob, a mobile performance network merges with AppGrade, a mobile video monetisation platform. Link
- Nielsen introduces world’s first mobile ad rating in Indonesia. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
Documobi (2015, North Yorkshire) – Provides technology to link a brand’s app to TV commercials, outdoor advertising, print and packaging advertising.
Happiness Inc (2015, Toronto) – Creates interactive AR advertising apps for Android and iOS and incorporates vision, touch, camera and microphone inputs in the apps.
FoculHub (2015, NYC) – Provides technology to advertisers for product placements, branded content and 3D object advertisements across VR platforms and provides analytics for campaign monitoring.
LEADER BOARD – MOBILE ADVERTISING
Campaign Management
SessionM (2011, Boston, $38.5M) – Provides cloud-based solutions for ad serving and data management capabilities with integrated loyalty marketing technology. Backed by Causeway Media Partners, CRV, Highland Capital Partners, KPCB, Commerce Ventures, NTT Docomo Ventures.
Creatives
Flite (2006, SF, $40M) – Delivers programmatic creatives, content-driven ads and responsive ads as platform solutions and serves, updates, and measures advertising in real-time. Backed by General Catalyst Partners, HWVP, Iris Capital, Sequoia Capital, VivaKi.
New Ad Formats
Blippar (2011, London, $99M) – Blippar provides a mobile augmented reality advertising platform that allows users to point their camera at any object and instantly see all of the extra information around it, like a purchasing page or a conversation on social media. Backed by Qualcomm Ventures, Khazanah Nasional Berhad.
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
PubMatic (2006, Redwood City, $63M) – Offers a sell-side platform for publishers to automate evaluation of ad inventories and provides unified auction engine with RTB capability across multiple channels, private marketplace, audience data management and ad campaign reporting tools to publishers. Backed by Helion VC, Nexus VP, DFJ, Silicon Valley Bank, August Capital, Nokia.
Native Ads
Outbrain (2006, NYC, $149M) – Provides content discovery and recommendation for publishers to increase traffic and generate revenue based on user-specific contextual analysis and collaborative filtering. Backed by Gemini Israel Ventures, LSVP, Glenbrook Partners, Rhodium, LGiLab, Carmel Ventures, GlenRock Israel, Index Ventures, HarbourVest Partners, Vintage Investment Partners, Susquehanna Growth Equity.
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. Acquired by WPP in 2015. Backed by Foundry Group, 500 Startups, DFJ Gotham VC, Greenspring Associates.
In-App Advertising
App Annie (2010, SF, $156M) – Provides app store optimization and market intelligence via app ranking analysis, tracking track app downloads, revenues, tracking users’ data and usage. Backed by Infinity ventures, e.Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Sequoia Capital, IVP, Greenspring Associates.
Data Management Platform
Aggregate Knowledge (2006, San Mateo, $74M, Acq) – Media intelligence company that offers advertisers and agencies an exact science to pinpoint where to reach highest performing customers in a single platform. Acquired by Neustar in 2013. Backed by Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, OVP Venture Partners, First Round Capital, DAG Ventures, NSV.
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
Nextperf (2009, Paris, $26M) – Nextperf technology combines real-time analysis of TV spots with media purchasing power, as well as dynamic user segmentation to retarget users who are browsing the internet at the same time as watching the TV. Backed by Kennet Capital.
Attribution
4INFO (2004, San Mateo, $60M) – 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.
Cross-Device
Phunware (2009, Austin, $58M) – Provides multi-screen mobile marketing automation platform that offers mobile advertising, content management, alerts and notifications, analytics and BI solutions. Backed by Wavemaker Partners, Wild Basin Investments, Maxima Capital Management, Cisco, Fraser McCombs Capital, Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Samsung Ventures.
Deep Linking
Branch Metrics (2014, Palo Alto, $53M) – Helps mobile apps personalize the install experience for every user and provides SDKs to generate deeplinks that pass data through install to drive higher conversions and better engagement. Backed by Pejman Mar Ventures, NEA, Cowboy Ventures, TriplePoint Capital, Founders Fund, Madrona Venture.
Enabler
Yext (2006, NYC, $117M) – Enables businesses to update location-related information on multiple websites from one place, thereby providing a centralized yellow pages like service in online environment. Backed by Sutter Hill Ventures, SV Angel, CrunchFund, IVP, WGI Group, Marker LLC, Insight Venture Partners.
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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