Israeli-American start-up JumpTap, which search and advertising solutions for mobile telephones, has announced that it raised $26 million in a fourth fund-raising round.
The round, which brings the total amount raised by the company to $68 million, was led by AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB), alongside existing investors General Catalyst Partners, Summerhill Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Valhalla Partners, and WPP.
The company was founded in 2004. It has developed a solution that brings together search patterns and operators' user data with the ability to provide targeted advertising. JumpTap works with partners from among both service providers and advertising agencies. The company's management team includes former Comverse managers Dan Olschwang, president and CEO, and Menashe Rothschild, CTO. It employs about 100 people, with a development center at Ramat Hahayal in Tel Aviv and a headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
JumpTap's great challenge lies in the market. It is up against giants like Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft, which are trying to penetrate (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, conquer) the mobile search and advertising market. In its announcement, JumpTap cites figures from eMarketer according to which worldwide spending on mobile advertising topped $2.7 billion last year and is expected to rise to $4.8 billion in 2008 and to $19.1 billion by 2012. Such numbers explain the motivation for the big companies to become active in this field.
“Internet advertising is currently growing at a compound annual rate of 18.3% and will reach $73 billion in 2011. What is really exciting about mobile advertising is its ability to eclipse Internet advertising,” Olschwang said today. “We have seen firsthand that mobile advertising is a viable mass medium - a fact which is reflected by our significant growth and numerous recently announced deals. The closing of this round by these prestigious investors during a tight financial credit climate sends a strong and positive message about their confidence in the growth potential of mobile search and advertising and our ability to execute on our long-term vision."
JumpTap claims that its solutions reach some 150 million wireless subscribers through agreements with 17 wireless telephony carriers, among them Virgin Mobile, Telefonica, Bell, and AT&T.
Ten days ago it was reported that JumpTap laid off some of its employees in israel and overseas. The company has refused to comment, but was reported in Wireless Week a few days ago as saying that it "continuously reviews its business model to ensure that it is best positioned for accelerated growth and to deliver maximum value to its partners and key stakeholders," and that it is "expanding and hiring across high growth areas of business including advertising operations and sales."
The money raised in the current round "will be used to further develop JumpTap’s powerful mobile search and advertising solutions and to continue expansion of its global ad sales and operations divisions to meet increased demand from advertisers," the company's announcement said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 27, 2008
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2008