Ross Levinsohn And Ted Meisel Put $3.5 Million Into FatTail

There’s always money in helping Websites make more money. FatTail tries to do that with its ad optimization software that tells Web publishers which ads and ad networks, in what combination, will give them the most ad dollars. The Southern California company, started in 2001 by math geeks who previously built a financial derivatives exchange, has bootstrapped itself until now.

With more than 500 customers including WebMD, Bloomberg, TheKnot, and Orbitz, FatTail is raising its first series A round. It raised $3.5 million from Velocity Interactive Group, Ted Meisel (the former CEO of Overture and president of Yahoo Search Marketing), and others. Velocity’s Ross Levinsohn will join the board.

I asked Levinsohn why he invested. His answer:

For a company who nobody has heard of, it has 500 clients. We like those odds. They already have revenues, and are on the verge of profits. They will be a survivor.

FatTail wants to become the trusted adviser for Websites to manage their ad inventory. With so many ad networks to choose from to plug in ad spots that cannot be sold directly, an ad optimizer like FatTail’s addresses a real pain point. FatTail works with any ad server and automates the Request for Proposal (RFP) process that between advertisers and Web publishers that is too often a bottleneck because it is still done manually.