Yodle is a New York-based lead-generation company founded in 2005 that helps local businesses advertise in search results and across a network of hyper-local publishers. Its platform points ads directly to customers' websites and tracks and optimizes actions from clickthroughs to phone calls. For businesses without a web presence Yodle builds 'AdverSites'—basic call-to-action landing pages. In 2009 the company reported 135% revenue growth and expanded its local advertising network to over 75 hyper-local web publishers. Yodle says it will use the new funding for product development and continued innovation. To date the company has raised $38 million in total financing. Yodle builds lead‑generation and local online advertising services for small businesses, including keyword bid management, landing‑page (AdverSite) creation, and analytics to track clickthroughs and phone calls. Its platform points ads to customers' websites or creates basic call‑to‑action sites when no web presence exists. Pricing for the suite ranges from under $1,000 for very small local businesses to over $5,000 for larger customers. The company reported a Q4 2008 run rate of $30 million and a 700% increase in annual revenue compared to 2007. Employee count grew from nine in 2006 to about 250, and customers climbed from 125 in 2006 to more than 5,000. Yodle said it expects to turn a profit in about six months. Yodle hires sales teams to call small businesses in major cities and explain its pay-per-call listing offering. Its core product displays a business phone number online and Yodle is paid when a user calls that number. The company claims that on average a small business gets $12 in profit for every $1 spent with Yodle. Yodle says it has about 1,000 customers now and plans to grow to 5,000 customers by the end of the year. The company has raised a new $12 million second round of capital, adding to a prior $3 million raise. Yodle positions its service as an alternative to traditional Yellow Pages-style marketing for SMBs. Yodle enables small businesses to join the local online advertising market using its ClickRank bidding-algorithm technology to promote merchants. The company’s model aims to convert website visitors into phone calls to businesses, fostering direct rapport between potential customers and owners. That approach reportedly drove a 224% revenue increase and generated 87,609 calls to date. Yodle was funded by Bessemer Venture Partners in November 2006 to help keep the model running. The firm has attracted notable advisers and directors, including AdBrite CEO Iggy Fanlo and Professor Michael Kearns, and added David Rosenblatt (CEO of DoubleClick) to its board.

Total raised

$32M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series D

Latest activity

Feb 2010