Today we announced the closing of our Series B Round, led by Emergence Capital. I'm am so honored, thrilled, and excited at the opportunity to work with Jason Green and his team of amazing professionals. As an entreprenuer, when you take on a board member, and investor -- AND (as a founder) YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT THE BUSINESS......well, that board member becomes part of your family. Like it or not, the communication, the issues, the challenges and the wins in life are shared by those who choose to participate. I am so excited to welcome Jason Green to my family....
Jason joins the Lotame board of directors at an important time in our company history. Social Media is evolving (both adaptation & new technologies) -- and his strategic insight will be critical to our success. I am confident with his previous investments in Doubleclick, AVEA and Ask.com -- that his expertise will be put to good use. Welcome Jason to our crazy, loving, and passionate family of social media pioneers!
Lotame Closes $13 Million in Series B Funding Led by Emergence Capital Partners
Proceeds to Fuel Expansion of Leading Social Media Advertising Platform
NEW YORK, August 19, 2008 – Lotame, a platform enabling targeted advertising to customizable audiences through social media, today announced it has closed $13 million in series B financing. Emergence Capital Partners, a leading venture capital firm focused on early and growth-stage technology-enabled services (TES) companies, led the round with continuing participation from previous investors including Battery Ventures and Hillcrest Management. The new funding will be used to support product enhancements, marketing and business development efforts to address the growing demand for Lotame’s targeted social media advertising technology solutions.
“Lotame has demonstrated leadership and a track record of success in monetizing the biggest opportunity in online media since the advent of search advertising,” said Jason Green
“This new investment from Emergence amplifies the immediate opportunity for Lotame given the firm’s investment leadership and acumen in the digital advertising marketplace,” said Andrew Monfried, CEO and founder, Lotame. “Another important piece of this event is the addition of Emergence’s Jason Green as a respected and pivotal team member to our board. His deep expertise and understanding of how to achieve our goals, having helped companies such as Ask.com, DoubleClick and Avenue A grow from early stage companies to prominent icons of digital advertising, is extremely valuable to Lotame at this time.”
Lotame’s proprietary Crowd Control™ technology enables brands and advertising agencies to direct campaigns to audiences that have demonstrated recent interest in topics relevant to the campaign. In addition to general information offered by users of social media during registration and interests implied by the sites the users visit, Lotame anonymously collects data points on users’ social media participation – such as posting pictures, commenting on blogs or watching a video. The result is increased confidence in the audience’s deep and current interest in specific subjects at the time of the campaign.
“Forty percent of Internet use is on social networks. This is no longer a wild frontier, and will soon be the primary use of the Internet,” added Monfried. “Until Lotame, the basics of Internet advertising had not changed to address the unique challenges and opportunities presented by social media. Now advertisers can take full advantage of the basic premises of social networks – the user sets the content agenda and connects other users to ideas.”
Using Lotame’s Crowd Control, advertisers can target the most influential members of social networks and measure a campaign’s success as indicated by user generated content related to the brand. Lotame also measures which behavioral and demographic factors indicate audiences that are particularly receptive to the campaign, helping advertisers maximize results for current or future campaigns.
“Lotame is reinforcing its leadership position by consistently improving its offering to publishers and advertisers,” said Roger Lee
About Lotame
Lotame provides a platform for easily building and addressing customizable consumer audiences based on social media activity in addition to implied or stated interests. Lotame has specifically designed its patented Crowd Control platform to take full advantage of the unique attributes of social media, using participation and user generated content as a foundation for improved campaign performance. Lotame is a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Please visit www.lotame.com for more information.
About Emergence Capital Partners
Emergence Capital Partners, based in San Mateo, Calif., is the leading venture capital firm focused on early and growth-stage technology-enabled services (TES) companies. Its mission is to help build market leaders in partnership with great entrepreneurs. Emergence partners have funded and helped build more than 35 leading TES companies including Salesforce.com (CRM), Success Factors (SFSF), aQuantive (now MSFT), among many others, more than any other early-stage venture firm. Emergence Capital has assets of more than $325 million under management. For more information, visit www.emcap.com.
About Battery Ventures
Since 1983, Battery has been investing in technology and innovation worldwide. The firm partners with entrepreneurs and management teams across technology sectors, geographies and stages of a company’s life, from start-up and expansion financing, to growth equity and buyouts. Battery has supported many breakthrough companies around the world, including: Airespace (acquired by Cisco), Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), BladeLogic (acquired by BMC Software), Cbeyond (NASDAQ: CBEY), LIFFE (acquired by Euronext), Neoteris (acquired by Netscreen), and Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR). Its current portfolio includes emerging firms such as Angie’s List, Bazaarvoice, Spot Runner, Tejas Networks, and TradeKing as well as more established companies such as Consona Software, ITA Software, and MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS). From offices in Boston, Silicon Valley and Israel, Battery manages nearly $3B in committed capital. For more information, visit www.battery.com.
About Hillcrest Management, LLC
Hillcrest Management, LLC, is a New Hampshire-based private investment firm that is committed to excellence in both private investment and inspiring the best in citizenship and community service through its workforce and public campaigns. Hillcrest invests its own money and resources into emerging local, national and international businesses and works closely with each portfolio company, assigning management professionals to develop and execute a strategic business model. For more information, visit www.hillcm.com.
“Here’s what’s important. We’ve allowed the way transitions look from the outside to drive our perception of what they must feel like to those going through them on the inside. From the outside, they look dramatic, almost revolutionary breakthroughs. But from the inside, they feel completely different, more like an organic development process.“- Jim Collins, Good to Great
just another day at the office. Congrats!
Posted by: dan | August 19, 2008 at 06:22 PM