Verve, a specialist in location-based marketing, is the latest to prove that private ad tech firms can still throw some weight around.
The New York-based group announced a $30 million debt financing package from long-standing investor Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). It speaks for a strong few years for Verve, which boasts 50% annual growth since 2012.
Verve provides a platform for advertisers to target roaming mobile users, and the investment comes just after Facebook encroached on the same space, announcing new capabilities for its advertisers to target users with options for local retail outlets.
App marketing group Fiksu was recently shouldered into an acquisition of its own. CEO Micah Adler claimed that too much competition was coming from its fellow ad tech firms in light of Google and Facebook taking “eighty-five cents of every new advertising dollar”.
Set for growth
Despite the impact of big firms wading in on the ad tech scene, their success doesn’t seem to have deterred Verve from striking huge deals.
In March, the group opened in the UK, with its European partners demonstrating strong performance. This added to a string of seven offices across the United States, as well as a presence in Eastern Europe, India and Southeast Asia.
“Verve is a pioneer in the mobile location business, and we have proven our ability to build a rapid-growth, profitable platform with industry-leading margins,” commented Verve CEO Nada Stirratt.
“We know that the mobile landscape will evolve, and Verve plans to be at the forefront of delivering greater advertising performance for our clients,” she added.
According to Stirratt, we can expect to see some upcoming data and technology acquisitions in the wake of this latest investment, while the group plans to “double” the size of its product and engineering team.
Earlier in the month, Verve announced Melanie Kalemba into the newly-created post of senior vice president and general manager of Verve Enterprise.