Tapad Announces Investors in First Real-time Advertising Platform for Smart Devices

PRESS RELEASE

List Includes a Who’s Who of Successful Power Players; Collectively They Have Built Several Billion Dollars in Market Value and Shaped the Online and Mobile Industries

NEW YORK, N.Y., (March 3, 2011) – Tapad, the technology company which created the first real-time advertising platform for smart devices, announced its initial round of investors today. The list includes some of the most successful online ad tech and mobile entrepreneurs, who recognize the market opportunity for a platform that enables marketers and advertisers to make dynamic decisions about the value of an impression before buying an ad.

With the explosive growth of mobile usage in the last few years, mobile advertising has become a critical element for marketers and advertisers who want to reach users on their mobile devices. However, the sophistication that has been built in online ad technology around audience targeting and real-time bidding of individual impressions is still missing in mobile advertising. This presents an excellent opportunity for Tapad as the first real-time advertising platform for iPhones, iPads, Androids and smartTVs. Investors agree, as indicated by the list below:

• Brian O’Kelley – Widely considered a visionary in the field of online media, Brian created the first successful ad exchange as CTO of Right Media (acquired by Yahoo for $850MM in July 2007) and founded and runs AppNexus; he is investing in Tapad with Matt Keiser (Datran Media, Live Intent), Ed Zimmerman & Ray Thek through their angel vehicle, www.GrapeArborVC.com, through which they have backed more than 2 dozen tech companies;
• Barry Silbert – Founder and CEO of SecondMarket, the largest secondary market dedicated to creating liquidity for illiquid assets, including private company stock and recently honored by the World Economic Forum as a 2011 Technology Pioneer;
• David S. Kidder – Co-founder and CEO of Clickable, a Web service that brings simplicity to online advertising;
• Dave Morgan – Founder and CEO of Simulmedia, a data-driven targeting company serving the television industry; former founder and CEO of Tacoda, acquired by AOL;
• David Rosenblatt – Former CEO of DoubleClick until he sold the company to Google in 2008, where he served as President of Google’s global display advertising business;
• FirstMark Capital (Rick Heitzman) – Early stage venture capitalist in New York, focused on emerging media and advertising, data and information services and software;
• Geoff Judge – Investor in early stage companies and Partner at iNovia Capital; Geoff was a Co-Founder of 24/7 Real Media, an investor in IndustryBrains (sold to Marchex) and a Board member of Fetchback (sold recently to GSI Commerce);
• Jeff Samberg – Managing Member of Acadia Woods Partners, LLC, a New York–based investment partnership that focuses primarily on early stage technology companies;
• Jeremy and Ben Arnon – Jeremy was an early employee at Quattro where he after the acquisition by Apple led Partnerships & Alliances for the North American launch of iAd. Ben currently sells Wildfire’s innovative social marketing platform to major brands and agencies and previously ran Business Development for Yahoo! Music;
• Lerer Ventures – Seed stage venture capital fund that invests in founders in the earliest stages of a startup’s life;
• Michael Flannery – Founder and Managing Partner of Redwood Partners, the leading international executive search firm for emerging mobile, Internet, and digital media companies;
• Mike Yavonditte – Founder and CEO at Hashable.com, a way to post meaningful connections with people and see who else in your community is connecting; former founder and CEO of Quigo, sold to AOL for $340M;
• Mikkel Eriksen – Grammy winning music producer and composer; co-founder of the collective Stargate, and has had 8 number ones on the Billboard hot 100, won ASCAP songwriter of the year several times, and voted “Hitmaker of the Year” in Rolling Stone Magazine 2008;
• Mikkel Sandvik – Private investor based in Oslo, Norway; he has a broadly based investment focus, including private equity, venture and real estate;
• Paul Olliver – Founder and Managing Partner of Wider Wake, an angel investment network, Co-Founder of Klipmart, and has also held senior roles at DCLK, Google, Overture, Yahoo, and is currently COO at appssavvy;
• Robert Johnston – Founder and CEO of The Executive Council, a unique innovation network of cutting edge senior executives, leaders, and thinkers who come together to explore the challenging issues impacting business and the economy;
• Scott Switzer – Founder of OpenX, ad server and ad exchange serving more than 350 billion ads monthly, and Venture Partner at FirstMark Capital; and
• Spring Capital – an investment firm founded by Are Traasdahl a serial entrepreneur in digital media; formerly CEO and Founder of Thumbplay, a company he exited in 2008. Start-ups founded by Mr. Traasdahl have generated more than $350 million in mobile and online revenue up from $0 when he started them.

Tapad combines audience buying and cross-device targeting, enabling advertisers to reach consumers on their smart devices.  The end result is more relevant advertising for users, higher ROI and efficiency for advertisers, and better monetization for publishers. Tapad’s cloud-based, open platform is scalable to billions of ad impressions per day, providing unprecedented transparency and flexibility when buying ads on smart devices.

“I’m thrilled to announce such a great line-up of investors. These entrepreneurs have created the online ad tech and mobile space making them an invaluable resource as we set out to shape the future of advertising on smart devices,” said Are Traasdahl, founder and president of Tapad. “With their support, Tapad will be able to provide advertisers with the data they need to put the most relevant ad in front of the most valuable user, on whatever smart device they might be using.”

About Tapad

Tapad (www.tapad.com) is a technology company which created the first real-time advertising platform for smart devices, such as smartphones and smartTVs.  This platform allows marketers and advertisers to make real-time decisions about the value of a user before serving an ad.  Tapad combines audience intelligence and cross-device targeting, enabling advertisers to reach consumers no matter what device they are using.  The end result is more relevant advertising for users, higher ROI and efficiency for advertisers, and better monetization for publishers. Tapad’s cloud-based, open platform is scalable to billions of ad impressions per day, providing unprecedented transparency and flexibility when buying smartphone, tablet and smartTV ads.