Yodle, the New York-based startup that helps local businesses advertise more efficiently on the web, has secured $10 million in Series D financing led by JAFCO Ventures and joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth, and DFJ. This latest round brings Yodle’s total financing to $38 million.
Yodle also released figures indicating the startup’s growth over the past year. In 2009, Yodle grew its revenue by 135 percent. The startup also expanded its local advertising network to over 75 hyper-local web publishers. The company, which started out in 2005, is a lead generation company focused on aiding small businesses advertise their wares in search results for all major search engines. If customers have a website, the ad will point directly to it and Yodle will track and optimize actions starting from clickthrough to phone calls, etc. If there’s no web presence yet, the small business can opt to work with Yodle to create a custom so-called AdverSite which acts as a basic call-to-action website or landing page for the advertisers.
Yodle recently filed suit against three former employees alleging that the men ‘hacked’ into its computer systems and stole trade secrets and proprietary data, some of which was sensitive information about current and potential future customers. The company says it will use the funding for product development and continued innovation.