Investment secured following ten-fold revenue growth in last 12 months
Company to open additional office in San Francisco and strengthen North American executive team
London, United Kingdom – Global mobile advertising marketplace Adfonic, announces it has raised an additional $7.5 million in funding. The investment, made by Adfonic’s existing investors, will support the company’s continued growth in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, increasing headcount from 40 today to over 100 in 12 months’ time. Gordon Shields, the leading telecoms and environmental entrepreneur and investor, is one of the major backers in this round of funding.
This latest round of investment follows a period of considerable growth and success for Adfonic which has seen the company grow its revenues ten-fold over the last 12 months, increase its network of publisher sites and apps to more than 8,000 and drive monthly ad requests across the network to over 15 billion. Thousands of campaigns are run across the network each month by leading brands including Samsung, Warner Bros. eBay, McDonalds, Groupon, Google, MSN and many more, giving them access to an estimated audience of 100 million mobile unique users.
Adfonic is investing heavily in North America with the opening of a new San Francisco office to complement its existing New York base alongside making a series of senior US appointments. Samantha Hoffnagle becomes Head of Sales, US East Coast, having previously been Director of International Sales at Publicitas North America. In addition, Silicon Valley veteran Wesley Nelson is appointed to Head of Sales, US West Coast, having previously held senior positions at GetJar, Tribal Fusion and Radium One. John Londoner, former Director or Publisher Development at TRAFFIQ.com, has also been appointed to the role of Publisher Acquisition Manager USA.
James MacDonald, General Manager USA commented: “We’re building enormous momentum in the US. Our business has grown ten-fold over the past year as a result of the quality of our inventory and our unique service offering. Now is the time to expand on both the East and West Coast and I’m thrilled to welcome such a wealth of industry talent to the team. In addition to the strength of our global network, we bring US advertisers, publishers and app developers a ‘one stop shop’ to access an extensive source of European mobile inventory and leading brands.”
The company will be making a series of further hires across its advertising operations, product development, engineering and marketing functions – with headcount set to rise by 150 percent within the next 12 months. Continued investment in product development will ensure the availability of additional tools and functionality to maximize advertiser and publisher performance.
Victor Malachard, CEO, Adfonic said: “This market is growing at a terrific pace and I’m delighted with the progress we’ve made over the last two years. This further round of investment will be used to consolidate our dominant position in the European market and to accelerate the tremendous growth we are seeing across the globe. We have a clear strategy for growth underpinned by further international expansion, recruitment across core functions and enhancements to our leading-edge platform.”
Gordon Shields commented: “I have been an investor in Adfonic from day one and the expertise of the management team, the quality of the Adfonic offer and the growth potential of the market means the company is ideally placed to lead in this industry. The impressive track record achieved so far and the robust plans for the future give me great confidence that the company will remain at the forefront of the rapidly growing mobile advertising industry.”
Worldwide mobile advertising revenue is forecast to reach $3.3 billion in 2011, more than double the $1.6 billion generated in 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. In addition, worldwide revenue will reach $20.6 billion by 2015.
Table 1*
Mobile Advertising Revenue by Region, Worldwide, 2008-2015 (Millions of Dollars)
| 2010 | 2011 | 2015 | |
| North America | 304.3 | 701.7 | 5,791.4 |
| Western Europe | 257.1 | 569.3 | 5,131.9 |
| Asia/Pacific and Japan | 868.8 | 1,628.5 | 6,925.0 |
| Rest of the World | 196.9 | 410.4 | 2,761.7 |
| Total | 1,627.1 | 3,309.9 | 20,610.0 |
Source: Gartner (June 2011)
*Gartner Press Release, June 16, 2011.
About Adfonic
Global mobile advertising marketplace, Adfonic, enables advertisers to bid for display advertising space on mobile sites and applications to extend their reach and drive results, and publishers to maximize the earning potential of their mobile traffic. Adfonic runs an average of 3000 campaigns a month for clients including Samsung, Warner Bros. eBay, McDonalds, Groupon and Google and reaches an estimated 100 million mobile unique users monthly. Over 15 billion monthly ad requests are generated through Adfonic’s network. The company is headquartered in London with further operations in New York, Paris and Seville. To learn more, visit http://adfonic.com or http://blog.adfonic.com
About Gordon Shields
Gordon Shields founded leading telecoms re-use and recycling business, Shields Environmental, in 1979 and quickly adopted the challenge of making environmental excellence a part of everyday business. With regard to his entrepreneurial activities Gordon grew his last venture Regenersis with his team from zero turnover in 2000 to £100m and £6m profits before retiring as Chairman in 2008.
Gordon was invited by the UK’s Environment Minister to serve on a steering group that assisted the UK Government in meeting its environmental targets and more recently, he served on a UK Government Business Task Force on Sustainability. Gordon has also contributed to the efforts of the United Nations Environmental Programme and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) for his contribution to the environment.
