Marin Software offers a platform to help advertisers manage large online ad campaigns across search, display, mobile, and social channels. Founded in 2006, the company expanded from search advertising tools into a broader online-advertising management offering. Marin says it doubled its customer base in the last year and now works with more than 1,500 advertisers and agencies. Customers use the platform to manage $3.5 billion in annualized ad spending. CEO Chris Lien indicated the new funding will be used to build sales and customer support teams and to fund product development. He also suggested this will likely be Marin’s last private funding round and that the company expects to be a public company at some point. Marin Software offers a browser application that helps advertisers and agencies manage paid search advertising campaigns across Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search sites. Over the past year it expanded beyond paid search to include applications for managing Facebook ads, Marin Retargeting (a workflow, analysis, and optimization solution), and Marin Professional, a simplified product for search marketers spending under $100,000 per month. The company serves 800 clients worldwide, manages 600 million keywords, and handles more than $2 billion in annualized paid search spend for its customers. Marin plans to invest its recent Series E funding to support growth of its customer base across industries such as retail, education, financial services, insurance, travel, lead generation, automotive, B2B, and local. Executive additions include John Kaelle as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Eric Chin of Crosslink Capital joining the board as an observer. The company has raised $51 million in total funding to date. Marin Software offers a browser application that helps advertisers and agencies manage paid search advertising campaigns across Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search sites. Its software automatically bids more than 350 million keywords each night and generates over 300,000 client reports each week. Marin is used by roughly 180 companies, including Razorfish and FreeCreditReport.com; its customers spend at least $100,000 per month on paid search campaigns across major search engines. The company plans to use the new funding for further product development. Marin has previously raised capital, including a $13 million round last year, bringing its total funding to $35 million after this raise. Marin Software offers a browser application to help advertisers and agencies manage paid search advertising campaigns across Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search sites. Its software is used by customers including Razorfish and ZipRealty. Marin's customers spend at least $100,000 per month on paid search campaigns across the major search engines. The company raised $13 million in Series C financing led by DAG Ventures. Marin's main competitors include Kenshoo and Refined Labs. Previous venture rounds include a $7.25 million Series B in 2008 led by Benchmark Capital and a $2.5 million Series A from Amicus Capital in 2006. Marin Software builds an in-browser application for managing paid search advertising campaigns, emphasizing a tabbed interface and flexibility for large campaigns. The company says its tools can read almost any URL, including those with Omniture search tags, and offers a free 30-day trial to ease adoption. Marin positions itself against competitors such as Omniture and Efficient Frontier and targets marketers still using Excel spreadsheets and search engine ad centers. Customers named in the article include Avenue A‑Razorfish and Zappos.com. Marin is led by CEO Christopher Lien and is based in San Francisco. The company recently completed a new financing round, reflecting outside investor interest in its product and market approach.

Total raised

$77M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Feb 2012