Digital Ad Company CPXi Raises $30M In Its First Outside Funding

Digital media holding company CPXi is announcing that it has raised $30 million in new funding.

Founded in 2000, CPXi apparently raised no outside capital before this. The current round was a mix of debt and equity, and the money comes from the Business Development Corporation of America.

CPXi says it has four main divisions: bRealTime (programmatic ad tech), Simplixity (media execution), Affiture (affiliate network), and AdReady, a programmatic ad startup that CPXi acquired last fall.

As you’d probably guess, CEO Mike Seiman and President Jeff Hirsch said CPXi has changed significantly over the past decade. In part because it needed to stay profitable, the company has been “pivoting according to the landscape,” according to Seiman, with Hirsch adding that the new funding will enable the company to “stay further ahead of the curves.”

For now, programmatic ad buying seems to be the main focus and an area where CPXi plans to continue investing. Hirsch said that while programmatic is a much-discussed trend, CPXi’s offering with AdReady stands out because it’s not limited to “automating the buying and selling of ads”, but also using automation to tailor the creative content included in those ads.

“It allows you to test and take advantage of who you’re reaching with the right message,” Hirsch said. For example, a large advertiser could set the basic template for an ad but then allow the content to be tailored to individual franchise locations, depending on the geography in which the ad is delivered.

CPXi says its 2013 revenue was up 49 percent, to $111 million, compared to the year before. It’s also announcing the addition of two members to its board of directors — Poptent CEO Nick Pahade and betaworks partner and Chief Revenue Officer Janet Balis.