US-based Sharethrough has announced a new round of funding for its native advertising technology, led by UK satellite television company British Sky Broadcasting.
Sky has decided to invest $5 million in Sharethrough after a partnership last year that saw native advertising integrated with skysports.com. It now wants to perform a more thorough rollout across more web properties.
Clients that use Sky Media, the company’s advertising sales house, will get the option to access Sharethrough’s native ads software too. Sky will also be using the technology to market its own services including Sky TV, Sky Broadband and NOW TV.
West joins Sharethrough
Sky Media’s deputy managing director Jamie West is all set to take on a board observer role at Sharethrough under the terms of the deal. West has been responsible for the launch of Sky’s tailored advertising service Sky AdSmart.
Sharethrough is not Sky’s first investment of this kind. It has also given the likes of Roku, Jaunt and 1 Mainstream a cash injection, while opening a San Francisco office to help create new partnerships with tech startups.
The $5 million that Sky stumped up was part of a larger $10 million round, which included extising Sharethrough investors FLOODGATE, Elevation Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Silver Creek Ventures.
Globalisation
After purchasing branded content company VAN, Sharethrough revealed its intention to expand into Europe with the firm’s founder and CEO Dan Greenberg still intent on pushing this global strategy.
“Partnering with Sky is our latest step in advancing Sharethrough’s vision to help publishers around the world find new revenue streams across all platforms, especially mobile,” he said.
“There is already a rapid shift towards native, in-feed monetization as a key revenue driver for all publishers in all markets. Our industry-leading software will enable publishers and their brand clients to deliver content programs at scale.”
Business has come along nicely at Sharethrough, with one billion native ad impressions a month causing revenue to nearly double. More than 300 premium publishers are said to have adopted the platform.