Our growth is a reflection of what is happening in the industry. As consumers increasingly migrate to smart devices, businesses will be unable to ignore the potential in mobile-local advertising.
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) December 13, 2011
xAd, the largest mobile-local ad network in the U.S., announced today that it has raised an additional $9 million in financing led by Emergence Capital Partners, with participation from existing investors SoftBank Capital and Palisades Ventures as well as funding from Silicon Valley Bank. The additional capital will be used to enhance xAd’s existing tools for both publishers and advertisers, as well as further build its patent-pending, ad-serving mobile technology that effectively factors in user-, contextual- and location-based relevance for optimal mobile performance.
With BIA/Kelsey projecting that U.S. spending in mobile-local advertising will increase to $2.8 billion over the next four years, xAd is making a concerted effort to ramp up its proprietary technology and offerings to meet the rising demands of a vibrant marketplace. In fact, the recent round of funding caps an active year for the growing mobile-local ad network that accomplished some major milestones in 2011.
In March, xAd acquired mobile property go2, one of the top-five mobile-Web guides, classifieds portals and local-directory destinations in the U.S. With the acquisition, xAd increased its mobile audience by securing prime, on-deck placement of its content across all major U.S. wireless carriers. In July, xAd announced the expansion of its product suite to include display advertising, making it the only mobile-ad network that currently offers both locally targeted search and display. Rounding out the company’s achievements in 2011, Mobile-Local Search Stats, a first-to-market quarterly report on mobile-local search insights and trends, was released in November.
To support its growth, xAd launched new offices across the U.S., particularly its research and development center in Sunnyvale, California, that now complements its two India-based facilities. In addition, the company added to its executive staff by recruiting and procuring top-level talent from the likes of Yahoo!, Yodle and SuperMedia.
Dipanshu Sharma, CEO at xAd, said about his company’s rapid climb, “Our growth is a reflection of what is happening in the industry. As consumers increasingly migrate to smart devices, businesses will be unable to ignore the potential in mobile-local advertising. Our ability to offer unparalleled accuracy and real-time targeting down to the most-intricate local level, including latitude, longitude and ZIP code, allows us to help businesses of all sizes unlock the potential in their local marketplaces. That truly is a testament to what we’ve achieved and will continue to achieve, thanks to our financial supporters and those inside xAd.”
About xAd
Established in 2009, xAd is the largest mobile-local advertising network in the U.S. and the only one offering both targeted search and display. Across its network, xAd aggregates and manages nearly half a billion location-specific ad requests per month, billions of business listings, and over one million national and local advertisers.
Its proprietary technology and quality-score algorithm, which takes into account nearly 30 variables such as user behavior and search location, deliver local and contextual relevance for better advertising performance: monetized calls, clicks and visits generated from ads across the mobile Web, owned and operated local apps, publisher partners, and mapping and navigation systems. That comprehensive ad inventory facilitates higher conversions for advertisers, who can reach a vast mobile audience with a single touch point, while publishers can experience high eCPM and also access a large, accurate database in one location.
Based in San Francisco, xAd has research and development facilities in Sunnyvale, California, and Gurgaon, India, as well as a sales center in Charlotte and several satellite offices across the U.S. For more information, visit xAd.com.
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