Placements.io raises $3.8M to help digital publishers manage their ad revenue

Placements.io says it’s helping online publishers get paid on time for ads.

Founder Edwin Fu said that when he was at Salesforce, he worked with “some of the largest media companies in the world” and “noticed a huge problem — they were having difficulty managing revenue fulfillment and billing for ads.”

The problem, he said, is that the online ad process has become increasingly complex, involving a number of different systems that don’t share data, meaning it can take a publisher 43 manual steps across 72 hours to execute a sales order.

And while there has been what Fu called “a disproportionate amount of investment” in companies building tools for the demand side (namely, the advertisers), he argued, “Now is the time where we’re really helping the supply side level the playing field.”

Placements.io offers a system for publishers to manage ad inventory, orders, payments and billing, all across multiple sales channels. It also integrates with a variety of different adtech systems, including DFP, AppNexus Ad Server, Freewheel Salesforce.com, Netsuite and MediaMath.

The startup was founded back in 2014, and its customers include Australia’s NineMSN, Zillow/Trulia, eBay and Cox Media Group.

Now it’s announcing it has raised $3.8 million in seed funding led by Revel Partners, with participation from Vulcan Capital and Alpine Meridian. Fu said the money will help Placements.io grow its sales and marketing teams, as well as investing in product and customer support. He also sees a big opportunity as Google plans to shut down its DoubleClick Sales Manager next year.