IPO In Future For Jumptap
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Jumptap mobile advertising network, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has raised an additional $27.5 million in venture funding to beef up its targeting technology and to prepare for a public offering.
Existing investors including General Catalyst Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Summerhill Ventures, Valhalla Partners, and WPP, as well as two new investors – Keating Capital and a large, unnamed institutional investor – participated in the round. The capital will be used to accelerate growth through additional investments in product and technology development and prepare for a public offering.
This is believed to be the first time that Jumptap has acknowledged its plans for an IPO. Altogether, Jumptap has raised $121.5 million in funding to date.
“Jumptap tackled the challenge of honing mobile ad targeting and understanding mobile audience, and it is flourishing on this path,” says John Simon, chairman of the Board at Jumptap, and managing director and co-founder of general Catalyst Partners. “Under the direction of its innovative leadership team, Jumptap has emerged as a leader in the market.”
Over the past year, Jumptap has extended its ability to target through partnerships with more than 20 third-party data providers such as Polk, Acxiom, Datalogix, TARGUSinfo, Catalyst, and i360, believed to make Jumptap the first to bring offline data to mobile advertising. Additionally, Jumptap has forged partnerships with hyper-local leader PlaceIQ, and social ad service 140 Proof, to bring new targeting capabilities and a better understanding of mobile audience to the advertising community.
Jumptap has experienced accelerated growth with significant increases in network traffic, ad campaigns and a deeper reach into major verticals such as automotive, retail, entertainment, consumer packaged goods and financial services. Each month Jumptap claims to reach 107 million mobile users in the U.S. and 156 million mobile users worldwide, delivering 20 billion mobile impressions.
The company has also experienced a surge in the development of its technology patent portfolio, with 29 patents issued and 200 pending. To support its escalation, Jumptap grew its employee base by 50% in 2011.
“The mobile advertising industry continues to grow at more than 50% annually; Jumptap is growing in excess of that,” says George Bell, CEO, Jumptap. “We’re focused on expanding our leadership in this surging market, developing our patented technologies in data and targeting, and preparing the company to go public.”
Goodwin Procter served as Jumptap’s outside counsel for the transaction.
This new comes just months after the third largest player in mobile display ads behind Google and Apple, Millennial Media, went public in March. Its shares nearly doubled to a high of $27 in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange but have since declined to about $13.
Millennial reported $32.9 million in revenue for the first quarter, but is understood to be operating at a loss.
July 3rd, 2012 at 12:59 @582
Great news for Jumptap! Well done & good luck!