Mobile advertising startup Apptera Inc.
has raised $10.5 million in a funding round co-led by previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alloy Ventures and Walden International.
Founded in 2001, Apptera claims to have developed a mobile ad network that helps marketers cost-effectively reach what it calls the "mobile trend-spreader" demographic with contextually relevent advertising. The company serves voice ads to cell phones with interactive visual components. Callers respond to voice ads and can receive coupons sent to their phones.
The seven-year-old
startup also announced that it has named former Yahoo! Inc. [
YHOO] sales executive David Kamstedt to its board. Kamstedt was also an exec at Wired Digital, Overture Services Inc., which was acquired by Yahoo! for $1.8 billion in 2003, and AltaVista Co., which had been acquired by Overture.
Mobile ad startups have been drawing a good deal of VC interest lately. Last week, cell phone ad company Transpera Inc.
got $8.25 million in a Series B round from Flybridge Capital Partners and others. Prior to that, Motorola Ventures
invested in mobile ad technology startup Amobee Media Systems.
-- Olaf de Senerpont DomisSee Nov. 19 press release from AppteraSee Nov. 13 post on Transpera's Series B from Tech Confidential
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