Appia, which operates a mobile ad network focused on user acquisition, has raised $4.5 million in new funding led by North Atlantic Capital.
That might not seem like a big round for a company that has already raised $30 million in funding, but a spokesperson insisted that Appia isn’t raising money because it needed more cash. Instead, they said it’s an “opportunistic” round aimed at accelerating growth.
Formerly known as PocketGear and initially focused on its own app store, Appia now describes itself as “the largest, non-incentivized app install network” — non-incentivized meaning that users aren’t offered rewards like virtual currency for downloading an app. (TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington famously called incentivized downloads scams.)
How large is the network? The company says that it has sponsored 63 million app installs to date for advertisers including Facebook, AT&T, Priceline, and Amazon. It also says that it already exceeded its 2012 revenue by the second quarter of this year.
When I asked via email how Appia sees itself fitting into in the mobile ad landscape, Chief Revenue Officer Ken Hayes noted (no surprise) that app discovery is a growing challenge, and he wrote:
Appia has created a mobile user acquisition network that focuses on solving the app discovery challenge while providing higher lifetime value users. Appia spans the entire mobile advertising ecosystem—from data partners to mobile exchanges; and our performance-focused, predictable mobile advertising solution covers advertisers, publishers and developers.
Appia previously raised a $5 million debt round from North Atlantic and Silicon Valley Bank.