Performance Horizon Group (PHG), the leading provider of partner marketing solutions for enterprises, announced today it has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by new investor Mithril Capital Management and that Ajay Royan, Mithril's managing general partner, has joined the PHG board of directors. Existing investors DN Capital and Greycroft Partners also participated in the round. PHG will use the new capital to rapidly expand its U.S. operations and global teams to meet the growing opportunity in the affiliate and direct partner marketing space.
According to Gartner, online and mobile marketing budgets will increase by another 10% this year, representing 30% of large companies' total marketing budgets. As a result of this trend, PHG has recorded 250% year-on-year growth since being founded in 2010. The PHG platform enables large enterprises-including Adidas, British Airways, McAfee, Westfield and Westpac-to connect directly to over 100,000 web and mobile partners in more than 150 countries. These customers maximize sales and drive better return on investment through PHG's ExactView product, an end-to-end solution which helps brands to automate many of the processes needed to bring affiliates and direct partners in-house.
'With brand advertisers spending over $10 billion annually on affiliate and direct partner marketing, we are laser-focused on changing the game globally, and in Mithril Capital we have found a partner who shares our long-term vision,' said Malcolm Cowley, CEO of Performance Horizon Group. 'During 2014, we have experienced an increased demand from customers in the airline, banking, retail and digital content verticals, as enterprises are looking to sophisticated technology platforms like ours to help them gain a higher return on investment from their online performance marketing efforts. This new capital will allow us to build on our market momentum and aggressively expand our U.S. and global operations, attracting the best and brightest to join us on this next exciting step of our journey.'
'From highly-trafficked content publishers and social networks to product gurus and blogger moms, online recommendations and reviews are extremely valuable resources for billions of people,' said Ajay Royan, co-founder and managing general partner of Mithril. 'PHG's seamless real-time platform helps support both major media publishers and citizen journalists by linking them to global brand advertisers and direct marketers who are increasingly shifting their performance marketing budgets to mobile and online channels. PHG is the leader in this rapidly growing space. PHG's growth will expand its performance driven commerce engine, enhance the trust economy and offer consumers more relevant choices.'
PHG provides all of the tools and services companies need to support large- scale global affiliate and direct partner programs in real time, including tracking, partner management, data optimization, local language support and partner payments and settlement. Accurate, reliable, flexible and scalable technology is fundamental to supporting this shift and PHG has set the technology standard for marketers as cost per acquisition and cost per sale become the de facto commercial models for leveraging online and mobile marketing partners worldwide.
About Performance Horizon Group
Performance Horizon Group (PHG) provides a world-class affiliate marketing and partner management platform that enables large enterprises to connect directly with their online and mobile publishers at scale, globally. With offices in the U.S., U.K., Japan and Australia, PHG supports its clients' performance marketing strategies in over 150 countries. PHG is backed by top-tier investors including DN Capital, Greycroft Partners and Mithril Capital Management. For further information visit http://www.performancehorizon.com, follow us @tweetphg and connect with us on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/performance-horizon-group.
About Mithril Capital Management
Mithril is a global investment firm founded by Ajay Royan and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel that provides capital to leading growth companies by partnering with teams who use technology to build transformative and durable businesses, often in industries long overdue for change. Each of these businesses is unique, but all face common challenges to unlocking long-term growth. Mithril helps navigate these critical inflection points by investing in size and with conviction. For more information, please visit: http://www.mithril.com or https://twitter.com/Ajayatmithril.