Integral Ad Science, the leader in quantifying digital media quality, today announced it has raised $27 million in its latest round of funding led by Sapphire Ventures, which also included Cross Creek Advisors as well as Integral's existing investors August Capital, Pelion Venture Partners and Atlas Venture. Additionally, Integral received a debt facility of $40 million from Silicon Valley Bank. This increased investment will aid in Integral's ongoing mission of providing the digital advertising industry with innovative technology that delivers actionable intelligence for media buying and selling.
'It has been a tremendous year for Integral Ad Science, but our work is not finished,' said Scott Knoll, CEO of Integral Ad Science. 'The expertise in marketing tech that Sapphire Ventures brings to the table makes this partnership especially exciting for us. This will undoubtedly help shape the future of Integral Ad Science and the impact we make on the industry as a whole.'
Integral has operated at a profitable level and high growth rate for the last three years, with expectations for strong performance in 2015 and beyond. Due to the worldwide demand for media quality measurement solutions including viewability, fraud and brand safety, Integral doubled staffing in 2014 and anticipates doubling again by the end of 2015. This growth includes new international markets such as the office openings in Paris and Tokyo earlier this month that increased Integral's global presence to 11 offices.
'In today's digital age, the problem isn't only attribution of ad spend, but also the quality of each impression,' said Nino Marakovic, CEO and managing director of Sapphire Ventures, who will join the Integral Ad Science board. 'Integral Ad Science is the clear global leader across all digital channels at tackling this problem, and is in a unique position to influence how ads are bought and sold. With a promising future, Integral is a strong addition to the Sapphire Ventures portfolio.'
Integral's success garnered multiple awards in 2014, including being named No. 7 on Crain's New York 'Fast 50', No. 15 on Forbes list of 'America's Most Promising Companies' and No. 115 on the Inc. 500. Integral's client services department was honored with a Stevie Award both in 2014 and 2015.
'We are excited to partner with Integral Ad Science, a pioneer in its field,' said Adam Millsom, director of Silicon Valley Bank in New York. 'Integral has demonstrated strong financials and exceptional growth, with a bright future ahead. Our primary objective is to help our clients move their bold ideas forward fast with the right financing, connections and global services.'
For more information, visit www.integralads.com.
About Integral Ad Science
Integral Ad Science is a technology company focused on ensuring safe, quality media environments for online advertisers. Employing the industry's only media valuation platform, Integral Ad Science evaluates the media environment and establishes a TRAQ Score (TRue Advertising Quality), a first-of-its-kind, quantifiable measure of media quality that ultimately benefits every media buyer, seller, publisher and trading platform. TRAQ Score supports an advertiser's ability to plan, execute and target their audience in an environment that reflects their brand image and drives ROI, while simultaneously setting benchmarks for publishers who wish to improve the quality of their content and design to attract premium advertisers. Integral is headquartered in New York with operations in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC, London, Berlin, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, Tokyo and Paris. Learn more at www.integralads.com.
About Sapphire Ventures
Sapphire Ventures is focused on helping today's most innovative technology companies become global category-defining leaders. Leveraging nearly two decades of experience and an extensive global enterprise network, Sapphire Ventures invests capital, resources and expertise to enable its portfolio companies to scale rapidly. Whether entrepreneurs sell to businesses, consumers or both, Sapphire Ventures offers a powerful platform for business development and operational excellence to help them accelerate growth. With $1.4 billion under active management as of July 2015, via direct growth investments and an early-stage fund investment strategy, Sapphire Ventures is uniquely positioned to elevate companies to the global stage. Find us in Palo Alto and London and at www.sapphireventures.com. Follow us @sapphirevc. Disclosure: The portfolio companies identified do not necessarily represent all of the investments made or recommended by Sapphire Ventures, and it should not be assumed that any specific investments identified herein were or will be profitable. Any forward looking statements or forecasts are based on assumptions and actual results are expected to vary from any such statements or forecasts. Past performance is not indicative of future results.