Israeli-US audience targeting data start-up eXalate Inc. has raised $15 million in a financing round led by Menlo Ventures and Carmel Ventures. Carmel Ventures led eXalate's $4 million first financing round.
eXelate said that it would use the proceeds to expand its database, enter new markets, and further develop its technology.
eXelate CEO Meir Zohar and CTO Elad Efraim founded the company in 2006. The company's online platform, the eXelate eXchange, functions as an open marketplace for audience targeting data about anonymous online users. The data exchange mediates between the owners of information about the users, i.e. website owners and content creators, and potential buyers - ad agencies and networks - to offer content creators a new source of revenue.
Online advertising and information about users' conduct is considered a real asset for advertisers, because it helps them know what users are doing at a particular website and what they are looking for. It also offers more segmented marketing data, such as users' ages and sectors, enabling advertisers to target the users.
eXelate launched the eXelate eXchange in the US in May 2008, and it now has 150 million unique US visitors who visit scores of websites that cooperate with the exchange through cookies to collect anonymous information from the websites. This information is categorized into 16 topics, which are offered for sale on the eXelate eXchange to advertisers for their campaigns.
eXelate's business model is based on revenue sharing between the content providers, the advertisers, and the company. eXelate already has cooperation agreements with leading advertisement agencies, such as WPP plc (LSE: WPP; Bulletin Board: WPPGY) and Publicis Groupe (Euronext: PUB). One of eXelate's main rivals is BlueKai Inc., which collaborates with eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 3, 2010
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