Innovid, a video advertising startup, has raised $9.5 million round led by Sequoia Capital with Genesis Partners and T-Ventures (Deutsche Telecom) participating in the round. As part of the funding round, Sequoia partner Gili Raanan will join Innovid’s Board of Directors. This investment brings Innovid’s total funding to $17 million.

Innovid’ develops an interactive pre-roll advertising product, called iRoll, that allows advertisers to turn any existing pre-roll video ad into an interactive one. And users are encouraged to click and perform mouse gestures with the interactive ads to gain further information.

The company also offers an ad server and analytics platform Dynamo, which provides video serving and deeper analytics for brands. Innovid’s platform has been integrated across hundreds of the video publishers and every major video ad network, according to the company.

Founder and CEO Zvika Netter tells me that iRoll is seeing CTRs of 5 percent, which is fairly high in the video advertising industry. He adds that the company is growing 100 percent each quarter.

Innovid has integrated iRoll in campaigns for a number of high-profile brands including Kraft, Buick, Hyundai, Disney Pictures, and Sony. And the startup’s publishers include 80% of the web’s top video publishers including partnerships with NBC, MTV, Fox, and Tremor Media.

Raanan says this of Sequoia’s investment in Innovid: The growth in online video consumption and advertising is staggering. We identified Innovid as a true technology leader in the industry with unparalleled integration into the distribution channels of video publishers & ad networks.

The new funding be will used towards product development and international expansion (the startup plans to open an office in London later this year).

Crunchbase

• INNOVID

Company: Innovid

Website: innovid.com

Launch Date: July 2007

Funding: $16.6M

Innovid is the standard in interactive Pre-Roll. Innovid developed the groundbreaking iRoll, which embeds interactive elements in pre-roll video ads making them dynamic and engaging without forcing audiences away from the page. Innovid’s proprietary technology provides a seamless integration between videos, embedded images and interactive features, empowering today’s marketers to engage their audiences more deeply than ever before. iRoll is the only interactive pre-roll unit with the scale necessary to elevate campaigns to the next level. With integrations across all the...

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