OpenX (which used to be called Openads), provider of an open-source ad serving solution for web publishers – we use it at TechCrunch -, is growing like weed under the leadership of former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller, who is the company’s chairman, and ex-Yahoo executive Tim Cadogan who is CEO. According to the company, they’re serving well over 300 billion ad impressions through its software as of this month, while its Hosted product line has achieved a more than 1 billion monthly ad impression run rate.
In August 2008, OpenX announced the launch of version 2.6, an update to its downloadable ad server and introduced a couple of features which spurred usage of the system, including a new API, dashboard and a speedier ad tagging system.
The ad serving solution is getting attention from around the world: its products are used in more than 100 countries and are translated into twenty-five languages by community contributors. The company says its community now counts over 35,000 total publishers that power more than 150,000 websites across the Internet.
OpenX, which is published under GPL, makes money by providing professional services to its publishers, something it started offering only two months ago. In addition, it sells premium support packages and enterprise-level Hosted accounts. A fourth revenue stream currently being tested is OpenX Market, a monetization platform that will essentially be something of an online market place where advertisers and publishers can partner up with each other.
OpenX raised around $20.5 million in funding from Accel Partners, Index Ventures, First Round Capital, Mangrove Capital Partners and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. It was originally based in the UK, but has now moved its main headquarters to California with offices in London and Poland.