Flybridge Capital Partners has notched its second investment in a week,
announcing a $5 million investment in online advertising startup digitalArbor. The news today follows a $8.25 million Series B round for wireless video advertising company Transpera Inc. announced last week;
the Boston venture capital firm led that round.
"We
raised a new fund in March, we're focused on early-stage investing and
there's a ton of good innovation going on right now," says Jeff
Bussgang, general partner with Flybridge. "We think that at the moment
of inception, that's when you can catalyze new companies that would not
have existed."
Startups that can cut enterprise costs are
attracting venture capitalists' attention during the economic slowdown,
and that's where digitalArbor comes in. The company provides a full
range of digital communications services, including Web site
development, digital marketing and promotion, including e-mail
marketing and online advertising. While the creative work is done in
the U.S., digitalArbor's production is outsourced to Cost Rica, where
costs are cheaper.
"The dirty little secret of digital
advertising is that it's actually less efficient to produce and
distribute because it's so fragmented," Bussgang says. "The whole
vision of highly versioned, customized advertising generates a lot of
grunt work and it doesn't make sense to have all these freelancers in
New York and San Francisco doing flash development"
-- David ShabelmanSee Nov. 17 press release from digitalArbor
See Nov. 13 post on Transpera's Series B from Tech Confidential
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