San Mateo, Calif. -based AdMobius — maker of an online ad platform that uses data from publishers, ad networks and other aggregators to create consumer “segments” that its clients can use to better target their advertising — has raised a $5 million Series A round of funding led by Opus Capital and Storm Ventures.
AdMobius launched today to enable publishers and advertisers to discover and target relevant audiences at scale for the first time. Its Audience Management Platform improves the performance and reach of ad campaigns for mobile advertising technology companies by aggregating mobile data to build target consumer segments. The company has closed a $5m Series-A investment round led by Opus Capital and Storm Ventures to solve the challenge of mobile audience targeting.
Audience buying has become a standard way to reach audiences online, but its application in mobile has been limited by the difficulty in identifying mobile audience targets at sufficient scale. By organizing and interpreting unique demographic- and interest-based information, AdMobius builds sizable mobile audience segments, from sports enthusiasts to style mavens. To create these segments, AdMobius aggregates data from publishers, secondary sources such as ad networks, and third-party data vendors. Currently, AdMobius’ Audience Management Platform can build consumer segments reaching 65 percent of iPhone users and 91 percent of iPad users globally.
AdMobius has strong partnerships with demand- and supply-oriented advertising technology companies to deliver audience segments to market. AdMobius helps them target audiences at scale through a standard set of mobile audience segments, as well as differentiate their offerings through custom segments. Additionally, AdMobius offers private segments created from the partner’s own data it doesn’t want shared with others.
“Finally, mobile ad networks and agencies can offer brand advertisers the ability to reach their desired audience at scale through mobile applications, and publishers can more effectively understand and monetize their mobile audiences,” said Dan Grigorovici, founder and CEO of AdMobius. “AdMobius is the first company to provide actionable mobile in-app audience data to marketers and full transparency to publishers.” As part of the investment, Bob Borchers, general partner of Opus Capital and Sanjay Subhedar, managing director of Storm Ventures will join angel investor Greg Tarr on the board of directors.
“Advertising on mobile presents many challenges for publishers and content providers,” said Sanjay Subhedar, managing director of Storm Ventures. “AdMobius’ mission is to enable brands and marketers to reach their mobile audiences with better targeting and improved performance.”
“With consumer attention shifting to smartphones and tablets, there is a scramble right now to help marketers respond effectively,” said Bob Borchers, general partner at Opus Capital. “AdMobius is well positioned to take the fire hose of data generated by mobile applications and to unlock the value it holds for publishers and advertisers.”
AdMobius was founded by Quattro Wireless and Apple iAd alumni Dan Grigorovici, Ray Duong and Omar Abdala, who have experience in advertising technology from Apple iAd, Google, Tacoda and Yahoo!. An accomplished team joins them with decades in combined knowledge of advertising technology.
AdMobius is privacy progressive, adhering to strict standards, including no use of personal identifying information (PII). The company is currently working with TRUSTe, the leading provider of privacy management solutions, to ensure privacy on mobile devices and enable consumers to easily opt-out if they do not want to receive targeted ads. AdMobius also works with industry associations, including the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence and Mobile Marketing Association, to develop privacy best practices for the mobile advertising industry.
ABOUT ADMOBIUS
AdMobius, the first mobile Audience Management Platform, enables publishers and advertisers to discover and target relevant audiences at scale. By organizing and interpreting unique demographic and interest-based information, AdMobius unlocks the rich value of mobile data. Based in San Mateo, Calif., AdMobius has strong partnerships with mobile advertising technology companies to improve the performance and reach of mobile ad campaigns. AdMobius is backed by Opus Capital and Storm Ventures. For more information, visit www.admobius.com .
ABOUT OPUS CAPITAL
Opus Capital Ventures was formed by a team with a long history of successful investing and operating experience. Over the past two decades — starting with our roots at Weiss, Peck & Greer Venture Partners — we’ve been involved in more than 80 successful outcomes (including 50 IPOs) including Adaptec, AirGate PCS, BlueNile, Brocade, Ciena, DoubleClick, Electronics for Imaging, FedEx, Genesys, Harmonic, Informatica, Kidaro and Vantive. Our primary focus is early-stage funding of technology companies and our primary objective is helping committed entrepreneurs build successful companies.
ABOUT STORM VENTURES
Storm Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investing in seed and early stage companies in the Mobile Internet, Enterprise Cloud, and Internet-enabled Commerce sectors. Storm was founded by a seasoned group of industry veterans with the common vision of sharing our collective experience, passion and energy to help talented and driven entrepreneurs build great companies of enduring value. Storm has invested in over 100 companies including Airespace (Cisco), Appcelerator, BookRenter, Com2uS (Korea IPO), EchoSign (Adobe), IML (Taiwan IPO), Kidaro (Microsoft), Lightera (Ciena), Marketo, MobileIron, NetScaler (Citrix), SandForce (LSI), Sanera (McData/Brocade), and Sierra Monolithics (Semtech). For more information, visit www.stormventures.com .
