xAd operates a location-based mobile advertising platform that serves ads in apps and mobile web pages using GPS, server integrations and location requests (it does not use Wi‑Fi). The company places ads across roughly 150,000 apps and reports reach of 500 million devices and 100 million places. As part of its strategy to grow audience and data, xAd acquired the WeatherBug app and an extended license to Earth Networks' sensor data (it did not acquire the sensors themselves). WeatherBug reportedly has about 20 million unique users per month, providing a regularly engaged, location-minded audience. xAd plans to invest in a global rollout of the weather-data integration and pursue further app acquisitions (categories mentioned include fitness and mapping) to strengthen its location offering. Management says the company is already profitable and is using the deal activity to help remain independent amid competition and consolidation in adtech. xAd operates a location-based mobile advertising technology platform that tailors ads to a user’s location and provides analytics for campaign performance. The platform serves about 40 billion impressions per month across roughly seven ad networks and exposes APIs that power third-party programmatic buying and back-end services. xAd says it is the first U.S.-based hyperlocal mobile advertising technology platform to expand globally and is live in Germany, the UK, Canada and India, with imminent launches in China and France. The company shifted in 2012 from an SMB focus to also serve national brands and now works with over 300 national advertisers. xAd is profitable, growing quickly (doubling year-over-year) and had “several million dollars in the bank” prior to this round. The company has not announced plans around iBeacons or NFC and describes the funding as padding its nest egg for future opportunities. xAd operates a local mobile search and advertising network in the U.S., using patented mobile optimization technology to identify who, what and where an end user is and serve relevant ads. The company aggregates and manages nearly half a billion location-specific ad requests per month, billions of business listings, and more than one million national and local advertisers. In May the company reported hitting 2 billion ads served. In March xAd acquired the remaining assets of Go2 Media, including its direct-to-consumer business and mobile web properties, brands and search sites. The startup said the new funding will be used to enhance tools for publishers and advertisers and to continue building and supporting its mobile ad-serving technology. The article does not disclose revenue or other financial metrics beyond the fundraising and operating metrics above. xAD operates a U.S. local mobile search and advertising network that uses patented mobile optimization technology to identify an end user’s who, what, and where and serve relevant ads. The platform is currently serving 200 million local search ad requests per month and partners with large mobile ad networks like Millennial Media to provide local inventory. Ads delivered through xAD include full business descriptions, images, offers, reviews, maps, and driving directions and are integrated into apps such as White Pages on iPhone and Android. The company says it returns relevant ad results 80% of the time. xAD is already profitable and raised new funding to expand and accelerate its technology platform. It competes with Google while the U.S. local mobile advertising market is expected to exceed $2 billion by 2014.

Total raised

$106M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Series E

Latest activity

Nov 2016