xAd, the global location marketplace, today announced that it has raised $50 million in a combined equity and debt financing led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) with significant participation from existing investors Emergence Capital and Softbank Capital, as well as Silicon Valley Bank. IVP is a focused later-stage venture firm with investments in leading hyper-growth mobile companies such as Dropbox, Twitter, Shazam, Soundcloud, and Snapchat. In conjunction with the financing, Dennis Phelps, a General Partner at IVP, will join xAd's board of directors.
'Our technology continues to push the limits of what's possible in mobile advertising, and the world is just starting to understand the immense power of location-based ad targeting,' said Dipanshu 'D' Sharma, CEO at xAd. 'We have built the industry's leading location-based advertising technology platform, and our rapid business acceleration has been a direct result of the performance that we are able to generate for our SMB, mid-market, and agency customers.'
Throughout the last year, the company has invested aggressively in product innovation. In April, xAd launched Footprints„¢, the industry's first visualization platform for real-time mobile location targeting, store visitation information, insights and measurement solutions. The Footprints„¢ product is revolutionary in that it enables brands to evaluate location behaviors for themselves, as they happen, by store, brand or other points of interest, thus allowing for more immediate and informed advertising decisions.
In 2013, xAd became the first US-based hyper-local mobile advertising technology platform to expand globally into several international markets. With enough self-generated profit to fuel its ongoing geographic expansion and product leadership, xAd has no immediate plans for the recent funding. However, the company continually evaluates strategic acquisitions that have potential to further strengthen its market leadership and global scale.
'IVP is in the business of financing innovative technology companies that are leaders in rapidly-emerging markets,' said Mr. Phelps. 'Through a prolonged process of detailed research into the hyper-local mobile advertising space, we came to the conclusion that xAd's technological innovation, business model, and track record of success really set the company apart from competitors by a wide margin. We're thrilled to be partnering with D and his team as they continue to pioneer and expand the mobile location targeting market.'
About xAd
xAd is the global location marketplace bringing together buyers and sellers with ad targeting solutions focused on driving in-store traffic and sales. The company is uniquely focused on capturing in-store visitation behaviors for ad targeting, insights, and measurement solutions. The first to visualize real-time foot traffic, xAd customers include 1.5 million advertisers - including direct brand relationships, agencies, ad networks, and other demand side media companies. Connect with xAd at http://www.xad.com, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Institutional Venture Partners (IVP)
With $4 billion of committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 99 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 33-year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. For more information, visit http://ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: @ivp.