London – mediasmart, a technology company whose proprietary solution allows advertisers and media agencies to automatically optimize media buying on mobile devices, has obtained € 2.5 million to finance its international expansion and strengthen its SaaS product.
The latest funding round involves its existing shareholders – Kibo Ventures, Mobile Dreams Factory and specialized investor Michael Kleindl – alongside new investor Inveready Technology Investment Group.
mediasmart offers a mobile first Demand Side Platform (“DSP”) – bsmart, that is being used in a self-serve mode by numerous customers in twelve countries across EMEA and Latin America. bsmart streamlines the process of programmatic media buying – both real-time bidding (RTB) and programmatic direct – using audiences and predictive targeting to maximize the reach and effectiveness of mobile campaigns. Agencies and brands can use it to reach the right audience at the right time with native formats, display, rich media and video served in both applications and smartphones and tablet browsers.
Noelia Amoedo, CEO of mediasmart said, “The investment from existing investors and newcomer Inveready will bring further continuity to the extraordinary success of our SaaS offering, which enables our customers to manage their own programmatic campaigns, knowing that they´ll reach the right customer at the best price and with guaranteed quality.”
Carlos Conti, General Partner at Inveready, commented, “Mediasmart is a leading player in a market that is still in a defining stage. Since launching its SaaS solution, the company has increased its sales by 75 per cent each quarter, which is proof that they are offering what the market has needed for some time. ”
Consumers of digital content already spend over 60 per cent of their total consumption time within mobile environments. Whilst this is especially the case in applications, the digital budget advertisers assign to such environments remains at 15 per cent. This points to the beginning of an inevitable transition. Within mobile advertising, programmatic buying clearly dominates, representing two thirds of mobile advertising budgets already in developed markets, and well beyond what it represents in desktop.
mediasmart was one of the first players in the mobile programmatic space at a global level, focusing on mobile programmatic buying since its inception. This has enabled the company to compete in markets such as the UK and France, and to position itself as one of the leaders in a sector with huge growth potential.
About Inveready
Inveready Technology Investment Group (www.inveready.com) is the first Spanish investment group focused on innovative companies in the early stages of their business lifecycle, with financial needs of approximately €1 to €4 million. Inveready has offices in Barcelona, Madrid and San Francisco.
Today Inveready has five investment vehicles with almost 70 million euros of Assets Under Management, 120 shareholders and more than 40 portfolio companies such as Adman, Clarive, Bitext, Mobincube, Palo Biofarma, Sweetspot or Catchoom. Inveready recently announced divestments of its portfolio companies Password Bank, 3Scale Networks, Indisys, Lucierna and MÁSmovil.
About mediasmart Mobile
mediasmart Mobile is the first Spanish company focusing on the real time optimisation of mobile advertising (both on smartphones and tablets) using its proprietary technology platform, bsmart.
mediasmart Mobile was one of the first movers into the mobile programmatic ecosystem, having launched in Jan 2012. bsmart gives access to global mobile inventory – both in mobile apps and web – from more than eighteen ad exchanges/SSPs, and it has successfully proven throughout the years that its algorithms can effectively manage big data to deliver results. A proven and scalable technology, currently handling more than 180,000 ad requests per second, bsmart can be used directly by mediasmart Mobile´s clients on a self-serve basis and it handles both RTB and programmatic direct buys.
Located in London and Madrid, mediasmart Mobile includes a team of mobile and advertising experts, and is backed by well-known investors KOMM Investment (Michael Kleindl) and Kibo Ventures (Aquilino Peña).
