ExtendTV, the premier programmatic media-buying platform for local advertising, is rebranding as ZypMedia, Inc. following completion of a $4.4M Series B funding round lead by Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBGI), with pro-rata participation from existing investor U.S. Venture Partners. The funding will be used to support continued development of ZypMedia's proprietary full-stack technology platform which has been specially designed to optimize performance and delivery of local advertising campaigns, as well as nationwide rollout of the company's product and services.
Concurrent with closing the funding round, the company signed a long-term commercial agreement with Sinclair, the largest television broadcaster in the country, to provide state-of-the-art programmatic media buying services to local advertising clients through Sinclair's more than 2,500 salespeople in 79 markets. Sinclair was previously testing the company's products and services as a beta client in three of its markets.
'Local businesses are starting to embrace the power of Big Data and programmatic media buying in a big way and this has led to an explosion of growth in our industry since the beginning of 2015,' commented Rob Weisbord, Chief Operating Officer of Sinclair's Digital Group who will be joining the ZypMedia Board of Directors. 'After testing a number of different solutions, it was clear that the ZypMedia platform produced superior results for our clients and their level of service was widely praised by our team. We are confident that this partnership will prove to be a crucial asset in our digital strategy moving forward.'
'USVP has invested in ZypMedia since its inception as ExtendTV and the team has exceeded all expectations in enabling local, regional and national businesses to have access to state-of-the-art media,' commented Jacques Benkoski, Partner at U.S. Venture Partners. 'Those businesses can now find their target customers where they will increasingly be found, such as brand name publishers, enthusiast websites and mobile apps. We are excited to see a leader like Sinclair recognize and validate the opportunity that is being opened by bringing these advanced capabilities to market.'
'We see the Sinclair partnership and the continued support of U.S. Venture Partners as tremendous validation of our proprietary technology, our strategy to focus on local markets, and our highly talented team,' commented Mark Goldman, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ZypMedia, Inc. 'Our new name, ZypMedia, is reflective of the speed with which we analyze available impressions and data sources to identify highly-targeted local audiences, and our comprehensive product offering which has expanded to encompass a full array of video and display advertising solutions across desktop, mobile and connected TV apps. This infusion of capital gives us the resources to scale our business and provide these capabilities to local advertisers from coast-to-coast.'
The ZypMedia solution features:
ZypCode - A proprietary full-stack programmatic media-buying platform built on High-Frequency Trading (HFT) principles. Enables the company to rapidly analyze many advertising impressions across all devices and filter them against more than a thousand data points leading to optimal ad placement for each campaign. Speed is essential when working with the smaller media budgets and limited audiences typical of local campaigns.
ZypLink - Access to the widest array of video and display impressions across desktop, mobile and connected TVs. Combined with state-of-the-art geographic, demographic, contextual, and behavioral targeting utilizing the best in 3rd party data sources and 1st party data that is proprietary to ZypMedia or supplied by its advertisers.
ZypCare - A dual-track approach to campaign management employing both proprietary computer algorithms and Analysts who are experts in local markets to manage campaigns on a daily basis. Enables the company to make rapid adjustments and optimize ad placement across all devices thus delivering superior performance and ensuring maximum effectiveness for every dollar spent. Supported by premium customer service featuring campaign transparency, custom reporting, and superior analytics.
About Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. is the largest and one of the most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country with 161 television stations in 79 markets and affiliations with all the major networks. The Company regularly uses its website as a key source of Company information which can be accessed at www.sbgi.net.
About U.S. Venture Partners
USVP is a leading venture capital partnership, helping entrepreneurs transform their ideas and efforts into world-changing companies. The firm focuses on early-stage ventures in information technology and health care, where innovation is unbridled and has led to the creation of economic wealth and millions of jobs over the past thirty-plus years of the firm's existence. Areas of particular interest to our investment professionals include enterprise software IT security, consumer internet, mobile, and e-commerce, healthcare, and IT-enabled healthcare services. The USVP team consists of former entrepreneurs, technologists, corporate executives, financial professionals and industry domain experts.
About ZypMedia
ZypMedia, Inc. is an enterprise software company for local advertising. The company has built a proprietary full-stack programmatic media-buying platform using High-Frequency Trading (HFT) principles. Its proprietary technology and operations have been specifically designed to optimize campaign performance and delivery for local advertising campaigns. Through collaborations with companies including Google's DoubleClick Ad Exchange; Liverail -- a Facebook company; MoPub; Nielsen; eXelate, a Nielsen Company; SpotXchange; Rubicon Project; Pubmatic; Millennial Media Exchange; Opera Mediaworks Ad Exchange; Inneractive; Vdopia; and AdRise, ZypMedia is able to access the widest selection of brand name and enthusiast websites, mobile and connected TV apps, and tap into the best in 3rd party data sources. The company has also developed proprietary 1st party data that it uses to more effectively target local audiences.