Medialets

Funding enables firm to bring greater scale to mobile rich media ad offerings for agencies & advertisers

August 10, 2010: NEW YORK, NY – Medialets, the most widely deployed cross-platform rich media advertising provider for mobile, today announced the closing of a $6 million Series B financing round led by investor Foundry Group, with participation from DFJ Gotham, 500 Startups and Chris Saridakis. Medialets will use the funds to expand the capabilities of its mobile rich media ad platform and supporting tools in order to bring rich media ads to the broadest range of advertisers possible.

“Medialets was founded in 2008 on the understanding that mobile would unleash a powerful engagement opportunity for advertisers,” said Medialets CEO Eric Litman. “Since then, not only has Medialets enabled the industry’s most compelling mobile rich media for premier publishers, agencies and brands, we’ve also built out a one-of-a-kind cross-platform infrastructure that brings greater efficiency and scale to mobile rich media campaigns. This Series B funding allows us to continue to evolve the Medialets’ platform to meet the phenomenal demand for high-value mobile rich media.”

Since its inception in June 2008, Medialets has pioneered the creation, delivery and measurement of the most highly engaging rich media ad formats for mobile.  In 2009, Medialets created and served the world’s first rich media ad for mobile apps. Earlier this year Medialets followed up on the release of its Universal SDK for iPhone and iPad with the launch of Android advertising support, making Medialets the first provider of cross-platform rich media ads for mobile apps.  More recently, Medialets introduced Medialets Enrich™, a partner program that significantly reduces the complexity of mobile advertising for buyers by enabling them to deliver and measure the same creative campaign on different mobile platforms and across Medialets’ partner ad networks, mediators and ad servers.

“Medialets has set the standard for creative and technological innovation in mobile rich media,” said Seth Levine, Managing Director of Foundry Group, Medialets lead investor. “By providing a scalable platform that uniquely addresses the challenges of mobile for both publishers and brands, Medialets has staked out its position as market leader early in the game and will continue to be a driving force in the rapidly growing mobile advertising market.”

A world-class executive team, assembled within the past year, has spearheaded Medialets’ tremendous growth.  Keith Gelles, co-founder of PointRoll, joined Medialets as Chief Technology Officer in July 2009 and Aaron Mittman, a former executive at Panther Express and DoubleClick, joined the team in September 2009 as Vice President, Global Sales.  More recently, Andrew Eisele, formerly of TargetSpot, joined Medialets as the company’s first Chief Financial Officer.  The executive team is supported by an advisory board that includes Greg Tagaris, former CIO DoubleClick, Andy Ellenthal, CEO Peer39, Ari Paparo, Executive VP Product Leadership at Nielsen and former Group Director of Advertiser Products at Google, Shervin Pishevar, Chairman SGN, and Colin Crawford, former CEO MacWorld/PC World.

For more information about Medialets, please visit www.medialets.com.

About Medialets

Medialets is the most widely deployed rich media advertising solution for mobile. Medialets brings unprecedented scale to mobile rich media campaigns by enabling the delivery and measurement of the industry’s highest-impact rich media across the broadest array of top tier iPhone, iPad and Android apps. NPR, The New York Times, Variety and The Washington Post are just some of the top publishers that have enabled Medialets’ cross-platform rich media. Medialets’ high-value formats are also available via leading ad networks, ad mediators and ad servers through a preferred partner program, Medialets Enrich™. Based in New York City, Medialets is a privately held company with marquee investors and a world-class team. Visit www.medialets.com, email connect@medialets.com, and follow Medialets on Twitter @medialets.

About Foundry Group

Foundry Group is a venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage information technology, Internet, and software startups. In addition to providing the necessary venture capital to get a company up and running, Foundry Group is committed to leveraging their experience in starting and growing companies, expertise in the technology industry, and network of relationships to help great entrepreneurs turn great ideas into great companies. Foundry Group is based in Boulder, Colorado, and invests in companies located across the United States. For more information, visit www.foundrygroup.com.

About DFJ Gotham

DFJ Gotham Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City focused primarily on early-stage information technology companies on the East Coast. DFJ Gotham Ventures partners with extraordinary teams of entrepreneurs to build strong and successful businesses that make a huge impact in their industries. DFJ Gotham Ventures takes pride in being an active partner, leveraging its experience, knowledge and relationships to provide substantial value to its portfolio companies. DFJ Gotham Ventures is proud to have backed such category leaders as Massive (acquired by MSFT), XOsoft (acquired by CA), Q-Link (acquired by Adobe), Mimeo.com, ContextWeb, Worktopia and Drop.io, among many others. For more information, please visit www.dfjgotham.com.

On May 11th, we officially launched Medialets Enrich, a preferred partner program that makes Medialets’ rich media ad formats available across a broader array of iPhone, iPad and Android apps. The program, which includes industry leading networks, mediators and servers such as Jumptap, Mojiva, Nexage and Ringleader Digital, is designed to give advertisers more mobile rich media buying power.

Today we announced our latest Medialets Enrich partnership with ADTECH, AOL’s ad-serving solution serving a broad audience of 800 million unique users. ADTECH will integrate Medialets Universal SDK for iPhone, iPad and Android into their mobile platform, giving ADTECH’s publisher clients and advertisers access to our high-impact, cross-platform mobile rich media ad formats.

Our joint press release has more details on the partnership. To learn more about the Medialets Enrich program by contacting us at connect@medialets.com.

Medialets enables ADTECH publishers with rich media mobile ad formats through the Medialets Enrich program

NEW YORK, NY – July 21, 2010: Medialets, the most widely deployed cross-platform rich media ad solution for mobile apps, has today announced that ADTECH, the international provider of ad serving solutions and part of AOL Advertising has selected Medialets’ mobile in-app rich media ad platform. ADTECH will integrate Medialets’ Universal SDK for iPhone, iPad and Android into their mobile platform, giving ADTECH’s clients access to Medialets’ high-impact, cross-platform mobile rich media ad formats.

“Partnering with ADTECH is another step in our effort to make mobile rich media more widely available to the brands and agencies that are increasingly seeking the most effective means of reaching mobile consumers,” says Medialets CEO Eric Litman. “ADTECH serves a broad audience of more 150 billion ads and 800 million unique users, and gives advertisers greater access to our highly engaging mobile rich media formats.”

As the leading cross-platform, cross ad network rich media solution built explicitly for mobile, Medialets enables brands and agencies to create ads that take advantage of all of the features and hardware capabilities built into today’s generation of smartphones. Medialets’ high-impact rich media ad formats empower publisher partners to sell more ad inventory at higher CPMs. The Medialets Enrich™ preferred partner program enables leading ad networks, ad mediators and ad servers to sell and support Medialets’ unique cross-platform rich media units. Advertisers benefit from the ability to run a single set of ad creatives across an exceptionally broad range of mobile properties and access a unified set of reports from which to measure campaign success.

“Medialets’ formats enable our clients to build deeper connections with consumers, generating significantly higher engagement rates than static banner ads while delivering maximum return for their advertisers’ media spend,” said ADTECH CEO Dirk Freytag. “Plus, integration of their Universal SDK was a simple process; it allowed us to begin offering our clients Medialets’ highly engaging formats very quickly.”

ADTECH’s integrated ad server solution enables web publishers, ad networks, agencies and advertisers to manage, serve and evaluate virtually any kind of online advertising campaign including display, video and mobile formats. In addition to serving as AOL’s global ad serving solution provider, Gannett, Fox Networks, The Weather Network and a host of other international ad networks and publishers use ADTECH’s digital ad server solution.

About Medialets
Medialets is the most widely deployed rich media advertising solution for mobile apps. Medialets brings unprecedented scale to mobile rich media campaigns by enabling the delivery and measurement of the industry’s highest-impact rich media across the broadest array of top tier iPhone, iPad and Android apps. NPR, The New York Times, Variety, The Washington Post are just some of the top publishers that have enabled Medialets’ cross-platform rich media. Medialets’ high-value formats are also available via leading ad networks, ad mediators and ad servers through a preferred partner program, Medialets Enrich™. Based in New York City, Medialets is a privately held company with marquee investors and a world-class team. Visit www.medialets.com, email connect@medialets.com, and follow Medialets on Twitter @medialets.

About ADTECH
ADTECH is an international supplier of digital marketing solutions and is AOL Advertising’s ad serving platform. The company’s flagship product is an integrated ad server solution that enables web publishers, ad networks, agencies and advertisers to manage, serve and evaluate virtually any kind of online advertising campaign including display, video and mobile formats. ADTECH’s solution differentiates itself from the competition through its scalable, enterprise-class infrastructure and user-friendly tools, providing users with increased efficiency, reliability and ROI for their online advertising business. ADTECH customers include major players like BSkyB, Hi-media, Gannett and Fox Networks. ADTECH AG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL Inc.

About AOL
AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a leading global Web services company with an extensive suite of brands and offerings and a substantial worldwide audience. AOL’s business spans online content, products and services that the company offers to consumers, publishers and advertisers. AOL is focused on attracting and engaging consumers and providing valuable online advertising services on both AOL’s owned and operated properties and third-party websites. In addition, AOL operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services in the United States, which serves as a valuable distribution channel for AOL’s consumer offerings.

As the demand for our rich media ad formats continues to grow, so do the needs of our clients to further understand how consumers are reacting to and recalling their brand messages, which is why today we’re excited to announce a new partnership with Dynamic Logic, a leader in measuring advertising effectiveness across all digital platforms.

This partnership not only enhances our ability to help our advertiser and publisher clients measure the success of their mobile in-app rich media campaigns, it also provides clients with greater understanding of how specific consumer interactions with an ad can impact brand opinion and consideration.

Dynamic Logic’s AdIndex® for Mobile provides analysis and actionable insights that help brand marketers understand how mobile ad campaigns perform on traditional brand metrics, such as Brand Awareness, Ad Awareness, Message Association, Brand Favorability, and Purchase Intent.

MediaPost wrote about this partnership earlier today. More info can also be found in our press release.

MEDIALETS PARTNERS WITH DYNAMIC LOGIC TO PROVIDE DEEPER BRAND INSIGHTS INTO MOBILE RICH MEDIA IN-APP AD CAMPAIGNS

AdIndex® for Mobile added to Medialets’ rich media metrics offerings

NEW YORK, NY: June 30, 2010 — Medialets, the most widely deployed cross-platform rich media ad solution for mobile apps today partnered with Millward Brown’s Dynamic Logic, a leader in measuring advertising effectiveness across all digital platforms. As a result, Medialets’ advertiser and publisher clients will now have the unique opportunity to utilize Dynamic Logic’s branding insights to further understand how specific interactions with a Medialets ad can impact brand opinion and consideration.

Dynamic Logic’s AdIndex® for Mobile provides analysis and actionable insights that help brand marketers understand how mobile ad campaigns perform on traditional brand metrics, such as Brand Awareness, Ad Awareness, Message Association, Brand Favorability, and Purchase Intent. Integrating these attitudinal measures with Medialets’ engagement metrics offers a more comprehensive view of campaign effectiveness.

“We’re excited to offer AdIndex for Mobile in addition to our standard analytics that measure impressions and click-through rate as well as custom engagements and post-click data,” said Medialets CEO Eric Litman. “Partnering with Dynamic Logic allows us to help our clients understand not only how the consumer engages with an ad but how they react and recall the brand message after they use the device.”

Through this partnership, advertisers will gain access to a unique measurement solution which directly ties together ad engagement and brand impact. Medialets and Dynamic Logic will be using WPP’s Safecount to power the technical integration, enabling relevant data points to be combined into one analysis. This type of data innovation in mobile is the first of its kind allowing clients to understand the full picture surrounding campaign effectiveness by exploring the relationship between ad interaction and changes in attitudes towards the brand and intent to purchase.

“The tremendous growth of mobile in-app rich media ads has led to an increased need for unique solutions to measure their effectiveness,” said Ali Rana, Vice President of Emerging Platforms for Dynamic Logic. “Through our collaboration with Medialets, Dynamic Logic continues our overarching strategy of integrating multiple data sources to offer marketers more in-depth insights. Being at the forefront of mobile data integration enables us to add an additional layer of insight for Medialets’ clients to better understand how effective their campaigns are.”

As the only cross-platform, cross ad network rich media solution built explicitly for mobile apps, Medialets enables brands and agencies to create ads that take advantage of all of the features and hardware capabilities built into today’s generation of smartphones. Medialets’ rich media ad formats empower publisher and ad network partners to sell more ad inventory at higher CPMs. The Medialets Enrich™ preferred partner program enables leading mobile ad networks, ad mediators and ad servers to sell and support Medialets’ unique cross-platform rich media units. Advertisers can run a single set of ad creatives without changes across an exceptionally broad range of mobile properties.

About Medialets:
Medialets is the most widely deployed cross-platform rich media advertising solution for mobile apps. Medialets brings unprecedented scale to mobile rich media campaigns by enabling the delivery and measurement of the industry’s highest-impact rich media across the broadest array of top tier iPhone, iPad and Android apps. The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Variety, Pandora are just some of the top publishers that have enabled Medialets’ cross-platform rich media. Medialets’ high-value formats are also available via leading ad networks, ad mediators and ad servers through a preferred partner program, Medialets EnrichTM. Based in New York City, Medialets is a privately held company with marquee investors and a world-class team. Visit www.medialets.com, email connect@medialets.com, and follow Medialets on Twitter @medialets.

About Dynamic Logic
Dynamic Logic (www.dynamiclogic.com) is a leader in providing advertising effectiveness insights across all digital platforms and the broader media mix. As a Millward Brown company, Dynamic Logic offers advertisers, agencies and publishers the unique combination of world-class expertise on brand building and media coupled with normative insights from its database of thousands of digital campaigns, the largest in the industry. Founded in 1999, Dynamic Logic pioneered online branding measurement and has grown with the digital age, developing innovations across 27 digital platforms and establishing specialty practices in cross-media, social media, mobile, gaming and custom solutions.

Google recently announced that over 100,000 Android devices are activated each day. As Android continues to build its share of mobile subscribers, we at Medialets have been creating and fine-tuning our Universal SDK for Android, which we’re happy to announce is out of beta!

Using our Universal SDK for Android, publishers can serve and measure Medialets’ fully engaging rich media ads within their Android apps.

The release of our new Universal SDK for Android, in combination with our Universal SDK for iPhone and iPad, means publishers can now create and deliver the richest and most engaging mobile ads across Android and iPhone/iPad devices. This, combined with the ability to view and compare a common set of metrics for both Android and iPhone/iPad campaigns, significantly streamlines the buying, serving and measuring process for brands in mobile.

The release of our Universal SDK for Android is the culmination of a very exciting few weeks in the development of our Android capabilities. On May 20th, during the day 2 keynote at Google I/O, a demonstration of a Medialets rich media enabled ad for Android was featured.

Also recently, New York Magazine launched their new Android app featuring a campaign for Starbucks, enabled by our Universal SDK for Android. Other leading publishers are in the process of integrating our Universal SDK for Android into their Android apps.

Our Universal SDK for Android supports Android OS 1.5 and higher and is ready to support future devices using the soon to be released Android 2.2 (Froyo). With so many different Android devices on the market and more on the way, the biggest problem in creating an Android app is the varying screen resolutions of all these Android devices. Our tech team solved the screen resolution problem with our new Universal SDK for Android so publishers can run a single creative that works intelligently across all resolutions on various Android phones.

To learn more about Medialets’ cross platform rich media advertising solutions or to get the Universal SDK for Android integrated into your Android app, send an email to connect@medialets.com.

We’re excited to announce today that we’ve partnered with Mojiva as part of our continuing effort to broaden the availability and distribution of our rich media ad formats.

As a partner in Medialets Enrich, Mojiva can now leverage our highly engaging rich media in-app ad formats for campaigns that run across their ad network or through their mOcean Mobile platform.

This partnership with Mojiva, as well as the partnerships we announced with Nexage and Jumptap, allow us to not only accelerate the growth of mobile rich media by giving advertisers access to the most engaging ad formats in mobile today, but to give them more buying power as well.

To learn more or to partner with Medialets, give us a shout at connect@medialets.com.

Mobile ad network joins Medialets Enrich™; Gives publishers and advertisers access to Medialets engaging, cross-platform in-app formats

NEW YORK, NY – May 26, 2010: Medialets, the most widely deployed cross-platform rich media ad and analytics provider for mobile apps, today announced a partnership with Mojiva to deliver Medialets’ highly engaging in-app rich media ad formats to Mojiva’s network clients. As a Medialets Enrich™ preferred partner, Mojiva can now leverage Medialets’ mobile rich media for campaigns that run across their ad network or through the mOcean Mobile platform.

“Our partnership with Mojiva brings greater scale to the mobile app ad campaigns we enable,” says Medialets CEO Eric Litman. “Together we’re accelerating the growth of mobile rich media by giving advertisers more buyer power and greater access to the most engaging ad formats in mobile today.”

The recently launched Medialets Enrich™ preferred partner program enables leading mobile ad networks, ad mediators and ad servers to sell and support Medialets’ unique cross-platform rich media units.  Medialets Enrich™ enables advertisers to run a single set of ad creatives without changes across an exceptionally broad range of mobile properties and provides a unified set of reports from which to measure campaign success.

“We’ve seen great demand from our clients for in-app rich media ads that not only generate higher CPMs, but allow advertisers to build stronger connections with consumers and see maximum return for their media spend,” said Mojiva CEO David Gwozdz. “We are pleased to work with Medialets. Their scale and flexibility help make them a leader in delivering rich media solutions for mobile apps.”

mOcean Mobile is the leading independent mobile ad serving and analytics platform, currently managing billions of ads for mobile websites, ad networks and applications including The Rubicon Project, Polar Mobile, The Star Tribune and News Over Wireless.

Medialets enables brands and agencies to create high-impact ads that take advantage of all of the features and hardware capabilities of iPhone, iPad and Android devices while empowering publishers and ad networks to sell more ad inventory at higher CPMs. Medialets’ unique cross-platform solution enables advertisers to run a single set of ad creatives across an exceptionally broad range of mobile properties and consistently measure performance through a unified set of reports.

To learn more about Medialets, visit http://www.Medialets.com.

About Medialets:

Medialets, the most widely-deployed rich media advertising and analytics platform for mobile, enables publishers, developers and advertisers to deliver highly engaging and exceptionally measurable ads into iPhone, iPad and Android applications. Medialets’ one-of-a-kind ‘asynchronous’ ad delivery technology enables delivery of the most compelling, measurable rich media even when the user is offline, while its Universal SDK™ offers the most flexible ad monetization platform for publishers. Clients include The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Variety, and Pandora along with many other leading publishers and brands. Based in New York City, Medialets is a privately held company with marquee investors and a world-class team. Visit www.medialets.com, email connect@medialets.com, and follow Medialets on Twitter @medialets.

About Mojiva:

Mojiva (www.Mojiva.com) is a mobile advertising company that owns and operates the fastest growing mobile advertising network, currently reaching more than 41 million unique users monthly through mobile web and app display advertising. The Mojiva network gives brand marketers and publishers everything they need to efficiently run targeted mobile display advertising campaigns within premium mobile content on any mobile device, including iPhones, iPads and other tablet devices. Founded in May 2008 and based in New York City, Mojiva has grown faster than any other advertising platform, and currently helps advertisers reach their target mobile audiences in 190 countries.

Nexage and Medialets Launch Preferred Partnership With Mixology, Top iPhone Application

Integrated Partnership to Deliver New Rich Media, Analytics, Mediation and Monetization Capabilities to Publisher Clients

BOSTON and NEW YORK, May 18, 2010 — Nexage (www.nexage.com), a leading provider of mobile advertising yield optimization and mediation solutions, and Medialets, the most widely deployed cross-platform rich media advertising and analytics provider for mobile apps, today announced a preferred partnership to bring turnkey mobile advertising solutions to publishers.

As a Medialets Enrich™ preferred partner, Nexage increases the volume and scalability of mediation and monetization for rich media ad units, and Medialets will be able to provide full mediation and monetization services to their publisher clients.

“Both Nexage and Medialets selected one another based on their respective leadership positions and focus on scalability and results for their publisher clients,” said Ernie Cormier, CEO of Nexage. “We are pleased about the partnership and our ability to expand the portfolio of rich media services we can offer to premium publishers.”

The partnership leverages Nexage Mediation, which maximizes mobile ad revenue by increasing ad-fill rates, increasing effective CPM (cost per mille [thousand]), and giving publishers direct control over how ads are served on their mobile sites. It offers brand safety and configuration of advanced business rules across multiple mobile silos of web and apps.

“This partnership with Nexage gives our publisher clients the option to increase ad-fill rates and maximize their mobile advertising investments,” said Eric Litman, CEO, Medialets. “At the same time it extends the distribution of our cross-platform rich media ad units across more publisher apps, giving top brands and agencies more mobile buying power.”

The partnership also leverages Medialets’ capabilities to enable publishers, developers and advertisers to deliver highly engaging and measurable ads into mobile applications. Digital Outcrop, creators of Mixology, the ultimate drink recipe and bartending guide for the iPhone, has already signed on to launch rich media ad campaigns from Medialets while having its inventory mediated and monetized with Nexage Mediation.

“The Nexage – Medialets partnership allows us to deploy best of breed application rich media and mobile ad mediation in one SDK – eliminating the need for multiple ad network SDK implementations, minimizing release cycle management, and maximizing advertising revenue,” said James Murphy, co-founder, Digital Outcrop.

The recently launched Medialets Enrich™ preferred partner program enables leading mobile ad networks, ad mediators, and ad servers to sell and support Medialets’ unique cross-platform rich media.  Medialets Enrich™ enables advertisers to run a single set of ad creatives without changes across an exceptionally broad range of mobile properties and provides a unified set of reports from which to measure campaign success.

About NEXAGE, Inc.
Nexage is a leading developer of Mobile Advertising solutions that enable companies to maximize advertising revenue from their mobile properties. The company’s leading product is Nexage Mediation, a hosted advertising optimization service that enables carriers and media companies to fully control and maximize the monetization of their mobile channels. It has been demonstrated to serve text, banner, in-application and video ads with higher fill rates and effective CPM than could be achieved previously. Currently, Nexage Mediation powers mobile ads for a number of top-tier publishers, broadcasters and operators. Additional information is available at www.Nexage.com.

About Medialets:

Medialets, the most widely-deployed rich media advertising and analytics platform for mobile, enables publishers, developers and advertisers to deliver highly engaging and exceptionally measurable ads into iPhone, iPad and Android applications. Medialets’ one-of-a-kind ‘asynchronous’ ad delivery technology enables delivery of the most compelling, measurable rich media even when the user is offline, while its Universal SDK^TM offers the most flexible ad monetization platform for publishers. Clients include The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Variety, Pandora, and more. Based in New York City, Medialets is a privately held company with marquee investors and a world-class team. Visit www.medialets.com, email connect@medialets.com, and follow Medialets on Twitter @medialets.

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As the most widely-deployed rich media advertising and analytics platform, it’s our goal to offer the most innovative and comprehensive platform for publishers, advertisers, developers and our partners. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Rich Media Ad SDK for Android, making Medialets the first and only cross-platform, network independent, fully native rich media solution for mobile.

The introduction of our Rich Media Ad SDK for Android means it’s now possible to create and deliver the richest mobile specific ads across both Android and iPhone devices. This, combined with a sophisticated dashboard that enables advertisers to view and compare a common set of metrics for both iPhone and Android campaigns, significantly streamlines the buying process for brands in mobile.

Android rich media support is also critical for scale; the demand for mobile rich media is only accelerating as more advertisers seek out campaigns that deliver engagement rates beyond that of online advertising to reach the exponentially-growing audience of smartphone and app users. Having a single solution for rich media across the mobile ecosystem drives down the cost to create mobile ads and takes the guesswork out of how to comparatively measure performance.

Top tier publishers, agencies and advertisers are already tapping into Medialets’ rich media advertising and analytics platform for iPhone and iPad. Today, we’re happy to say that we’ve made it easier for our current and future customers to effectively address the full scope of this growing market.

Medialets is immediately signing up new and existing customers for the initial public beta of the Android Ad SDK. To learn more, email us at connect@medialets.com.