Nexage, a startup offering a real-time bidding platform for mobile ads, just announced that it has raised an additional $5 million from Hearst Interactive Media.
Nexage CEO Ernie Cormier says this is a last-minute addition to the the $10 million Series B that the company announced in June, bringing the round’s total size to $15 million. The funding should help Nexage build its connections in the digital media world, with Hearst Interactive Vice President Darcy Frisch joining the company’s board of directors.
Other investors in the round include SingTel Innov8 (the venture arm of Asian telecom company SingTel), as well as past investors Relay Ventures and GrandBanks Capital. As you might expect given SingTel’s involvement, Cormier has said that Nexage is looking to grow in Asia. He has also said that Nexage will be expanding its technology to “other pieces of the ad stack.”
“Our mission remains the same with this additional Series B funding: to extend our RTB leadership, champion and support the needs of our premium customers, and accelerate the maturity of the mobile advertising market,” Cormier said in the press release.
When I met with Cormier last month, he also emphasized the need to bring more standardization to the mobile ad industry, which he said is at a similar stage of development as the online ad industry in the late ’90s. That’s not something that Nexage can do on its own, but it’s something that Cormier said he will be pushing for.
Nexage has now raised a total of $19.5 million.
Nexage is the leading premium mobile advertising exchange, connecting over 300 publishers and developers with over 200 demand sources to create the most efficient, liquid, and vibrant market in mobile advertising today. The intelligent Nexage Exchange delivers the most advanced solutions in the market today, including both private and public exchanges, data enrichment, rich media and video ad units, and a real-time targeting capability that gives buyers powerful campaign ROI results, while enhancing the value of our publishers’ inventory....
Hearst Ventures manages a portfolio of strategic investments in development-stage companies focusing primarily on emerging media and interactive technologies. The group, a division of Hearst Corporation, has been investing for 15 years in such companies as Netscape, Broadcast.com, XM Satellite Radio, EInk, Brightcove, Sling Media, Pandora, MobiTV, Buzzfeed and HootSuite.
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