After building a strong investment foundation of
media-intensive venture
capital firms and early strategic backers, advertising services
developer Spot Runner Inc. has greatly expanded that base in a $51
million late-stage round from global media and consumer companies to
accelerate
its growth in both online and offline media marketing.
As investors in the round Spot Runner added Britain's Daily Mail and General Trust plc [DMGT], Mexico's Grupo Televisa, Legg
Mason Capital Management and France's Groupe Arnault/LVMH, along with previous backers CBS Corp., Allen & Co., Interpublic Group [IPG], WPP Group plc [LON: WPP], Index Ventures, Tudor Investment Corp. and Capital Research and Management.
London-based WPP had been rumored as
a potential buyer of Spot Runner last fall. But the new funding allows
the online ad sartup to remain independent and accelerate growth, further
boosting its potential valuation in an online ad industry where M&A activity is soaring.
Since landing original venture investment from Index and Battery
in two $10 million rounds in 2005 and 2006, the four-year-old web-based ad
agency has focused on strategic investment, with broadcasting giant CBS and
traditional advertising conglomerate WPP coming in on a $40 million round
in October 2006. At the time, Spot Runner co-founder and CEO Nick Grouf (pictured) said
the company sought strategic partners that could both drive top-line growth with
the advertising dollars they controlled, but also broaden the type of clients
the company works with.
Grouf said the addition of the current roster of
investors
strengthens the company on both of those counts, as well as validating
Spot Runner's technology-driven ad model, which allows
customers to create
ads from thousands of made-for-primetime templates that can be customized to
reflect the specifics of their business. Spot Runner also has a
platform for
customers to create ad schedules.
Grouf said the new strategic partners create a more solid
global footing for the company, adding the world's largest Spanish language
media company in Grupo Televisa; the world's largest luxury goods group in
Groupe Arnault, which owns Moët & Chandon, Hennessy, Louis Vuitton,
Givenchy, Sephora and TAG Heuer; and a broad array of media in the U.K. with DMGT's
holdings in national newspapers and related digital operations, local media, business
and financial information, conferences and radio. -- Clifford Carlsen
See 2006 story on Spot Runner funding from TheDeal.com
See September 2007 post on Spot Runner from Tech Confidential
See April 25 post on online ad M&A from Tech Confidential
For more see Mashable.com, PaidContent.org and SiliconAlleyInsider
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