Strategic Investment to Boost Expansion in 2013 After Impressive 300% Revenue Growth in 2012
CAMBRIDGE, MA – Celtra Inc., the industry leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics, today announced a $4 million strategic investment led by investor SoftBank Capital. Ron Fisher, managing partner at SoftBank Capital, will join Celtra’s Board of Directors.
In addition to SoftBank Capital, existing Celtra investors GrandBanks Capital and Fairhaven Capital participated in this round. The investment will be used to explore business opportunities in Japan and elsewhere in the Asia Pacific by leveraging SoftBank Capital’s strong relationships and experience in the region. In addition, funds will be used to expand the company’s engineering presence in the U.S. by bringing product development operations to San Francisco.
“2012 was a watershed year for mobile advertising, and Celtra’s technology established the company as the uncontested leader in the rich media ad-serving space,” said Ron Fisher, managing partner, SoftBank Capital. “Celtra’s AdCreator platform takes a unique approach to deliver the next generation of ad display technology. Having the creative builder, ad server and analytics integrated in a single online platform simplifies all stages of the campaign lifecycle, provides dynamic campaign optimization and opens new possibilities for more insightful analytics.”
Celtra saw phenomenal success in 2012, becoming profitable in Q3 and consistently exceeding goals, with revenue growth of more than 300 percent. The company’s AdCreator platform has been widely adopted across the largest mobile publishers, ad-networks and other ecosystem players such as exchanges and RTBs. Celtra is serving more than 200 clients and partners on the sell-side, including four of the top five mobile ad networks. Celtra is also highly regarded among the world’s leading media agencies, which increasingly rely on AdCreator for rich media ad serving and analytics. In fact, eight out of the top 10 media agencies are using Celtra’s platform.
Additional 2012 achievements include the launch of Celtra’s AdCreator 3 platform, the introduction of Celtra’s innovative Rich Media Post for Facebook product, and the forging of strong partnerships with global agencies such as Mindshare in the U.K. Celtra also was named one of the Most Innovative Tech Companies of the Year by the American Business Awards and won MassTLC’s Innovative Mobile Technology of the Year Award.
“The Celtra team has both a clear vision and a proven ability to execute,” said Clark Kokich, Chairman at Razorfish. “They are constantly innovating and pushing the industry forward, and as a result, Celtra is experiencing rapid adoption by advertising agencies.”
“We are thrilled about this strategic investment from SoftBank Capital,” said Mihael Mikek, co-founder and CEO at Celtra. “It comes at a pivotal time for the company as we look to expand our footprint domestically and abroad. I am confident SoftBank Capital’s involvement will have a significant impact on our business as we enter into our next phase of growth.”
About SoftBank Capital
SoftBank Capital makes early and growth stage investments in companies that connect people, devices and the world. The fund focuses on category leaders in consumer and enterprise mobile, online advertising, ecommerce, social media, and cloud computing. We have been making investments since 1995, with recent exits including Buddy Media, Hyperpublic, Huffington Post, OMGPOP, Pivot, and ZipList. Our investors include SoftBank Corp., which introduced the iPhone to the Japanese market and recently announced the strategic acquisition of Sprint; Yahoo! Japan, the largest search engine and content portal in Japan; and Alibaba, the largest online B2B company in China. To learn more, visit www.softbank.com.
About Celtra Inc.
Celtra Inc. is the global leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics. Celtra’s AdCreator 3 platform, which is used by world’s leading agencies, publishers and networks in more than 18 countries, is the only complete, SDK and ad server agnostic platform for rich media mobile advertising. Celtra’s unparalleled HTML5 ad products are designed to provide the best user experience, performance and reliability on distinctive mobile platforms with one single ad unit. For more information, visit Celtra at www.celtra.com or @CeltraMobile on Twitter.
Celtra is headquartered in Cambridge (MA), with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London (UK), and Ljubljana (SI).
