Mobile advertising network Apptera has closed a $10.5 million funding round led by Alloy Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Walden International. The company is also announcing that David Karnstedt, Yahoo’s former SVP of North American Sales who has extensive experience in advertising, has joined its board.
Apptera offers a suite of audio and visual advertising solutions for companies looking to place ads on mobile devices. The company is behind many of the voice ads when you hear on free 411 services, as well as the ads found on AOL’s Moviefone. The company estimates that its ads reach over 100 million users a year, with huge growth rates as more companies expand to take advantage of mobile platforms.
Good Information. Marketing is changing a lot.
These are all legacy investors. No new money has joined the round. Correct?
i dont think people want ads on there phone. i know i dont. this company like every other “adnetwork” appears to be lacking ad inventory that they own and control. so much for distribution.
CellularLocator.com – mobile rules
wow! that’s a good news!
This will most likely be another failure.
I almost thought this article was about Aptera — The ‘green’ automative company based in California that’s developing an advanced green vehicle. This company should change their name ASAP, because I see a shouting match on the horizon.
I’m curious as to why there is a link at the Aptera site to this site…no connection that I can see.
As the CMO of Apptera, I’d like to respond to a few of the comments above:
1] Yup, this is good news for entrepreneurs. Money is flowing from venture investors for solid ideas and companies.
2] No one likes ads. However, here are two scenarios that we run that are pretty cool:
– A caller places a free call to Moviefone to hear a show time of a movie and hears a 10 second audio ad that says “Stop by Chili’s after your movie. It is 1-block up Main Street from your theater. Press 1 on your cell phone for an SMS promo code for a free dessert.” That’s not bad.
– Instead of dialing 411, a user calls AT&T’s free-411 service asking for Harry the Plumber. In exchange for paying $1.50 for the phone number, they have to listen to a 10-second ad. The ad says “Ace Plumbers are experts at emergency repairs. We can usually be at your place in 20 minutes, and will give you $10 off today if you choose us instead.” Now they might decide to stick with Harry the Plumber, but they shouldn’t be offended by that ad.
3] Adam says we’ll “most likely be another failure.” Maybe, but we got some of the biggest brands in the world advertising with us and major companies targeting our ads into their calls. We are making a bunch of people a lot of money while giving consumers promotions that are VERY relevant to their inquiries. We got cash in the bank, major backers in the industry and positive reviews in the press. We are humble and know there are no guarantees, so we are working hard to prove Adam wrong.
4] We’ve been around since 2001 and yes, a “green” car company called Aptera (with 1 p) started up in 2006. We decided not to “shout” at them since most people can distinguish our two companies pretty fast. It would be neat to buy one of their cars though and put the license plate “Apptera” on the Aptera car.
@ Randy
1) Up round?
2) Please start running those Chili’s ads rather than the old non-paying Changling ads you put back up before this release.
3) There is clearly a mkt for voice ads, but pls don’t sully it with hype. You don’t yet have big brands for advertisers or publishers, and you wouldn’t even have Moviefon unless you offered the rate guarantee.
Now that you have some money in the bank, build a mature business. Focus less on PR and more on educating advertisers on the benefit of voice ads. And then figure out if you’re selling software or running an ad network.
Hi Randy,
If this is to fly off, the ads have to be creative, i mean to capture attention in 10 secs is quite a challenge. You could have problems getting good ROI for your advertisers. Just my 2 cents. Product wise, I’m a believer, this is the future!
Oh btw
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