Nokia Growth Partners and Northgate Capital Invest to Boost Rocket Fuel’s Expansion
REDWOOD SHORES, CA – Rocket Fuel Inc., the company bringing rocket science to display advertising, announced a $10M Series B round of venture capital led by Nokia Growth Partners with additional investment from new investor Northgate Capital and existing investors Mohr Davidow Ventures and Labrador Ventures. This latest round of funding brings the total venture capital investment up to $20 million.
Rocket Fuel will use these funds to rapidly expand its market presence to better address the demand for effective online display campaigns that has driven its growth to date — 10x growth from Q2 2009 to Q2 2010 and 2x sequentially from Q1 2010 to Q2 2010. “We’re proud to be a company that has created jobs for more than 50 people across five states in the last two years, and we look forward to doubling both numbers by next year,” said George John, chief executive officer of Rocket Fuel Inc.
As part of the funding, Marc Theeuwes, partner at Nokia Growth Partners and a consulting Professor at Stanford University, will take a seat on Rocket Fuel’s board of directors. “We have been active within the digital advertising space for a number of years focusing on companies in display, mobile and video. The display market is complex, the lines between online and mobile are blurring, and advertisers are demanding better ROI. We believe there is an opportunity to create immense value with better technology and a result-driven approach. That is why we are so excited to invest and help the company scale,” Theeuwes said.
“We chose Nokia Growth Partners because they have an excellent reputation among portfolio CEO’s in Silicon Valley, a global footprint with offices in Europe, China, and India, and we trust Marc to be a thoughtful and helpful board member,” said George John. “We’re proud to be working together to scale Rocket Fuel from a startup to a speedup.”
Adds John, “Northgate is a respected global fund that typically invests in companies at our stage via its investments in top-tier venture capital funds like Mohr Davidow, Kleiner and Sequoia. We were delighted at their direct interest given their expertise and network in media and advertising.”
“We know firsthand that advertising is changing and Rocket Fuel is well-positioned to benefit as advertisers are increasingly looking for better results and innovative ideas,” said Tommy Vardell of Northgate Capital. “We’re excited to be involved and eager to help Rocket Fuel as it grows.”
About Rocket Fuel Inc.
Rocket Fuel Inc. is the company bringing rocket science to online display advertising. With its advanced technology, the company is helping marketers reach their brand goals quickly and easily, anywhere in the purchase funnel. Over 150-million people a month see ads from its Rocket Fuel Network, which combines behavioral, contextual, geographic, demographic, and many other techniques to yield results far more powerful than any method could on its own. Rocket Fuel automatically adapts advertisers’ campaigns in real-time to optimize towards their goals — whether brand-oriented or performance driven. If you can measure it, Rocket Fuel can optimize it. The company was founded by veterans from NASA, Yahoo! and DoubleClick. Rocket Fuel was named Best Startup of 2010 by the San Francisco Business Times. The Silicon Valley-based company has sales offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago and New York. For more information visit www.rocketfuel.com.
