Ividence, the email ad network, has raised $4.2 million in a series A round from A Plus Finance, the Paris-based investment fund. The new capital will be used by the company to consolidate its position in France and to accelerate international expansion, including hiring “around 20 people” in 2011.
Ividence operates as a SaaS for email advertising. It connects email lists with advertisers’ customer acquisition campaigns and claims that its proprietary Behavioral Email AdServer allows each campaign to automatically select email addresses whose “behavioral characteristics” indicate that they are going to be most receptive to the advertiser/offering. This results in far less but more targeted email being sent out in an effort to reduce spam.
Ividence claims to monetize over 10 million email addresses in France and in the U.S. and manages more than 3,000 campaigns a month. Its advertisers include Cdiscount, Voyageprive, Groupon, Citroen, Idmacif, PCH, Match and Dish Network.