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Venture Capital News: DataXu Closes $27M of Growth Capital

2013-02-07
BOSTON, MA, Provider of digital marketing software for the enterprise, today announced that it has closed $27 million in funding. The investment was led by Thomvest Ventures.
DataXu, a provider of digital marketing software for the enterprise, today announced that it has closed $27 million in funding. This new round of financing will reinforce the company's leadership position, support ongoing global expansion and accelerate additional investment in technology that keeps its customers at the forefront of innovation.

The investment was led by Thomvest Ventures, a venture capital group headed by Founder and Managing Director Peter Thomson, a director of Thomson Reuters. All three current major investors -- Atlas Venture, Flybridge Capital Partners and Menlo Ventures -- participated in the round. Stefan Clulow, Managing Director of Thomvest, joins DataXu's board of directors with this investment.

"DataXu is using data science to redefine the way marketers build brands in a digital world," said Mike Baker, CEO of DataXu. "In the era of digital and big data, it's increasingly obvious that legacy ways of working in the advertising industry -- including faith-based thinking, lack of transparency, and an inefficient supply chain -- no longer make sense. Our software helps marketers reduce the cost and complexity of marketing across multiple digital channels, while at the same time enabling them to build a much deeper and more actionable understanding of today's empowered consumer. This is the catalyst for our record-breaking growth."

This funding round comes on the heels of a number of milestones:

Created a new software category -- Programmatic Marketing.
Grew direct-to-enterprise platform sales revenue more than 700% year over year, now comprising the majority of the company's revenue.
Introduced the first multi-channel Demand Side Platform to include display, tablet, smartphone, video and Facebook Exchange, with 80 percent of revenue coming from customers running multichannel.
Tripled staff and customer base, and increased the company's global footprint with 11 offices in eight countries.
Developed the only real-time multivariate decision system that "learns" how consumers engage across channels and manages media investments for optimal return.
Extended the DataXu platform to optimize media investments in real time based on consumer sentiment shift and beyond exchanges on guaranteed media investments.
Launched a suite of integrated analytics for customer intelligence and media investment analysis.
Founded the OpenRTB consortium whose standard for programmatic media was adopted by the IAB and is in use in more than 80 companies.

"Our strategy is to find and partner with entrepreneurs building transformational companies," said Peter Thomson. "The rise of programmatic marketing is reminiscent of how automation and software also revolutionized the financial services industry. We believe DataXu is in the vanguard of an even bigger opportunity and on a trajectory to become the next great enterprise software company."

About DataXu
DataXu is transforming the way companies build their brands in a digital world through the industry's only fully integrated programmatic marketing solution. The DataXu Platform offers cloud based software that leverages data and analytics to help enterprise marketers better understand and engage consumers, and optimally manage marketing investments for more efficient and effective customer acquisition strategies. With 11 offices in eight countries, DataXu services more than 700 brands across the globe. For more information, visit www.dataxu.com or follow us at twitter.com/dataxu.

About Thomvest
Thomvest is a venture capital firm committed to the success of our entrepreneur partners. We primarily focus on investments in areas where we have deep expertise and experience, including software, technology-enabled services, and hardware businesses. The capital we invest is our own, enabling us to be more creative, flexible and patient than most venture investors. It takes time to build great companies and we're committed to supporting our entrepreneurs throughout their journey. That's why more than two-thirds of the companies that we have funded in the last decade have either gone public, been acquired, or continue to grow as independent businesses. To learn more about Thomvest, please visit www.thomvest.com.
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