Millennial Media Raises $15 Million Financing to Extend Leadership in Rapidly-Growing Mobile Advertising Marketplace
Leading Mobile Ad Networks Company Builds on Significant Momentum
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE) - November 05, 2007 -- Millennial Media, the cross-platform mobile advertising company, today announced it secured $15 million in a B-round financing to aggressively extend its leadership position in the fast-growing mobile advertising marketplace. The company plans to intensify its investment in delivering solutions to advertisers and agencies to reach consumers on mobile devices and building on its position as a leading mobile ad network. Additionally, Millennial Media's growth initiatives include ramping up sales and international business development to complement the premier network it has assembled. This Series B funding brings the total raised in 2007 to $21.3 million.
The funding was led by Charles River Ventures (CRV) and as part of the investment, Millennial Media has appointed CRV's George Zachary to its board of directors. Zachary brings more than 17 years of operating and investing experience in computing and consumer technology with a successful focus on building great services and software technology companies. George led CRV's investments in Areae, Geni.com, GoTV, Skyrider, Twitter and is on each company's board of directors. Existing investors, Bessemer Venture Partners and Columbia Capital also participated in the financing.
"As mobile advertising moves from early adoption to broad inclusion in media planning and buying, expect the market for mobile ads to be robust," said George Zachary, Board member of Millennial Media and general partner from Charles River Ventures. "With the broadest product set, its choice mobile ad networks and its stellar team, Millennial Media is well positioned to be the leader in this growing market."
Millennial Media is led by a team of mobile and advertising industry veterans that helped Decktrade™, Marketplace™ and Motion, the company's flagship products, become some of the most widely accessed mobile advertising networks and tools in the US. The company operates industry-leading mobile ad networks designed specifically to best meet the diverse needs of agencies, brands, and direct marketers. With Motion for rich media user experiences, Marketplace for delivering significant reach and brand engagement, and Decktrade for performance campaigns, the company helps advertisers succeed in meeting their objectives.
"We will continue to aggressively invest our resources in building the global mobile advertising opportunity for advertisers, and continue delivering the richest demand in the industry to publishers," said Paul Palmieri, CEO of Millennial Media. "We have an outstanding team, a vast network of strategic publishing partners and capabilities far beyond our competition in this segment. These valuable assets combined with our strong sales competencies are in place at a time when the mobile advertising market is experiencing explosive growth. Our employees, partners and investors are focused on leading this tremendous emerging market."
"Rarely have I seen a company as well positioned as Millennial Media to proactively lead a market," said Ron Elwell, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. "Millennial Media's position in the mobile advertising ecosystem allows the company to capitalize on opportunities in ways that no other company can with their broad reach and deep mobile ad networks. The company is one of our best performers and clearly moving the needle with its recent partnership wins."
About Millennial Media™
Millennial Media operates mobile ad networks designed specifically to best meet the diverse needs of agencies, brands, and direct marketers. With Millennial Motion rich media for engaging user experiences, the Millennial Marketplace for targeted audiences on premium content, and Decktrade for large-scale performance campaigns, we help advertisers succeed in meeting their objectives. Millennials are more than today's youth. With a larger population than the baby boomers and representing more than 70% of mobile media usage, they are the mass market for today and tomorrow, and Millennial Media provides the best solutions to reach them. For more information please visit us at http://www.millennialmedia.com.