The Baltimore-based company today has announced an additional $27.5
million in growth equity funding, with participation from Bessemer
Venture Partners, Columbia Capital and Charles River Ventures. That
brings funding to date to $65 million.
Under CEO Paul Palmieri, the company plans to build out its 2010
acquisition TapMetrics, an analytics company, and pursue further
deals with the new round. While smartphone leaders Google and Apple
have bought up mobile ad networks, rumors have circulated that
Microsoft, which is lagging in the mobile ads race, has been eying
Millennial for acquisition.
The funding is yet another sign that mobile ads will continue to
grow at a rapid clip into 2011. Apple is prepping to accelerate
growth for its iAds platform: it announced a tool for agencies and
brands to create their own iAds without production help, which will
likely speed up the process and get more of its mobile rich media
ads on phones. We'll also begin to see iAds on iPad this year -- the company ran its first
preview ads for Disney movie Tron Legacy in December.
That followed Google's touting the scale of its global mobile
ads business: in October, the search giant reported it'd hit
$1 billion in global mobile ads for 2010 (that figure,
unlike the IDC projections quoted earlier, includes search as well
as mobile display ads).
The mobile ad market got a jump start more than a year ago when
Google and Apple acquired mobile ads networks Admob and Quattro
Wireless, respectively. That momentum is expected to continue into
2011 -- the U.S. mobile advertising market is expected to hit $1
billion for the first time in 2011, according to eMarketer.
Millennial says its mobile ad network reaches more than 85% of
U.S. mobile web users with 17 billion impressions per month.
Globally, it extends to consumers in more than 250 countries.
