Warburg Pincus Leads Round with Broad Management Participation
NEW YORK – The Better Advertising Project, Inc. (Better Advertising) announced that Warburg Pincus has led a $9.5 million investment in the company. Every member of Better Advertising’s management team also participated in the investment round. The company will utilize its investment capital as it continues to scale its assurance platform and develop other programs for consumers, advertisers, publishers, and solutions providers.
Better Advertising is the first and currently only company designated as an Approved Provider of compliance services for the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (the Principles) of the Digital Advertising Alliance. This includes the ability to deliver the Advertising Option (or Forward I) Icon on behalf of companies who are participating in the self-regulatory program. The company’s Assurance Platform is operating at scale, already delivering notice with multiple billions of advertising impressions every month across the internet for leading brands.
“The team at Better Advertising has done a fantastic job of developing and launching their transparency-enabling technology platform and making the DAA initiative work for its design partners and advertisers,” said Mark Colodny, Managing Director at Warburg Pincus. “The heavy lifting they’ve done to provide meaningful transparency and the triangle of benefit for consumers, advertisers, and publishers has been impressive. We’re in full support of not just the business and the management team, but the initiative itself.”
Better Advertising was incubated inside of Warburg Pincus in 2009 while CEO Scott Meyer was an Entrepreneur in Residence at the firm. Better Advertising launched in July 2009 and is working closely with leading agencies, networks, data providers, and publishers on behalf of their brand clients. The company also works directly with dozens of global brands who are already using Better Advertising’s Assurance Platform as a standard method to provide evidence of compliance with the Principles.
“We’re honored to be at the forefront of this issue and to be working with so many committed and visionary industry leaders to make the DAA initiative a reality for consumers, advertisers, and publishers and other ad businesses,” said Scott Meyer, CEO and founder of Better Advertising. “We’re grateful to our partners at Warburg Pincus for their ongoing guidance and financial support. This funding will enable us to work with even more companies in delivering on the promise of full industry implementation of the Self-Regulatory Principles and meaningful transparency in interactive media.”
This story was first covered in the Wall Street Journal’s All Things D: http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20101121/better-advertising-project-raises-millions-for-its-web-privacy-seal-of-approval/
About Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus is a leading global private equity firm. The firm has more than $30 billion in assets under management. Its active portfolio of more than 110 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector and geography. Warburg Pincus is a growth investor and an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 13 private equity funds which have invested more than $35 billion in over 600 companies in more than 30 countries. The firm has offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, São Paulo and Shanghai. For more information, please visit www.warburgpincus.com.
About Better Advertising
Selected by the Digital Advertising Alliance to power its interest-based advertising self-regulatory program, Better Advertising enables a more trusted environment for everyone in the online ecosystem. It gives businesses an easy, standard way of providing evidence of compliance with industry guidelines, and consumers more transparency into, and control over how their information is used online. By empowering consumers and earning their trust, businesses build their brands, participate in IBA with confidence and generate better advertising results. For more information, please visit: www.betteradvertising.com.
