Collective Media Closes $20 Million in Growth Equity Funding with Accel Partners 
Collective Media Closes $20 Million in Growth Equity Funding With Accel Partners
New York, NY – April 13, 2009 – Following a year of rapid growth and continued profitability, leading online advertising network and technology provider, Collective Media, today announced that it has closed $20 million in growth equity financing with Accel Partners, in conjunction with iNovia Capital.
The company will utilize the new funds to further fuel organic growth, as well as to accelerate technology development, expand internationally and explore acquisitions. Since its launch in 2005, Collective Media has helped Fortune 1000 brand advertisers extend their reach and target audiences at great scale and efficiency without compromising quality. The company combines this expertise with a sophisticated portfolio of technology products designed to offer advanced audience targeting, ad network management and analytics. Collective Media experienced a revenue increase of over 200 percent and an EBITDA increase of 333 percent for year-end 2008 over year-end 2007.
“Accel has been a driving force in working with some of the world’s leading Internet media and technology companies, so we’re thrilled that we will be able to leverage that expertise in our aggressive growth plans,” noted Joe Apprendi, CEO, Collective Media. “We are excited that our new relationship with Accel will enable our team to push forward on our current growth trajectory, while exploring a host of new options for expanding the business both domestically and abroad.”
“As an investor that is very active in supporting online media businesses, Accel was attracted to Collective’s premium brand-oriented display advertising network,” said Sameer Gandhi, Partner, Accel Partners. “Beyond that, Collective has an innovative suite of technology solutions – in particular, the AMP® targeting and display advertising management platform – that set them apart in the ad network space.”
“A key reason why I chose Accel is their experience and strong portfolio in digital media such as Facebook, Glam, Trulia and Admob,” said Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO-in-Residence at Accel Partners. “With Collective Media as a part of the Accel family, I’m excited to work with yet another category leader in digital media.”
Collective Media helps advertisers, publishers and agencies develop and execute ad network strategies through technology, targeting, distribution and analytics. From advanced semantic technology and proprietary ad effectiveness reporting, Collective Media fully evaluates the efficacy of an ad well beyond just impressions and clicks – including engagement metrics for all ad units. The company’s current client list comprises nearly 300 brand name advertisers and over 250 premium publishers, served from seven offices in the United States.
About Collective Media
Collective Media’s media and technology solutions serve online publishers, agencies and advertisers. Collective’s product suite includes the Collective Network™, the largest premium display advertising network, the Directive Network™, the only transparent performance advertising network, AMP®, its proprietary ad network management platform and Personifi™, the leading semantic content classification and audience targeting solution. Founded in 2005, Collective Media is a member of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and is headquartered in New York City with offices in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Visit Collective Media at www.collective.com.
About Accel Partners
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of excellence and innovation in the venture capital business and is dedicated to partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class companies. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California; London, UK; and Bangalore, India; as well as in China via the IDG-Accel Partnership.
With over $6 billion under management, Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful category-defining companies including: Actuate, Alfresco, AMCC, Arrowpoint, Baidu, BBN, Brightcove, ComScore, Etsy, Facebook, Focus Media, Foundry Networks, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, JBoss, Kayak, Macromedia, metroPCS, Mu Sigma, Polycom/PictureTel, Portal Software, QlikTech, Rapt, Real Networks, Redback Networks, Riverbed, Sohu.com, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, XenSource, and Zimbra. For more information, visit the Accel Partners web site at www.accel.com.
About iNovia Capital
iNovia Capital manages seed and early stage venture capital funds, with a focus on helping entrepreneurs build successful companies in information technology, life sciences and cleantech. iNovia’s value-added approach to early stage investing provides portfolio companies with capital, unique access to intellectual property from its extensive network of industry and academic partners, advisors and sector-specific co-investors. For more information, visit www.inoviacapital.com or follow iNovia on Twitter at http://twitter.com/inovia.
John Elton
Partner
iNovia Capital
Office: 514.982.2251 x324
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