What: Google, AOL Ventures, and others have invested US $17 million dollars in mobile ad-tech company Vungle.
Why it matters: Mobile advertising is flourishing with an expected US $5 billion dollar increase in spend this year. Mobile ad-tech is growing along with it. Vungle in particular focuses on being the monetization infrastructure apps rely on.
Google, AOL Ventures, and others organizations have invested US $17 million dollars in Vungle, a mobile ad-tech company based in San Francisco. Founded in 2011, Vungle has raised US $25.5 million to date. It has 50 employees and plans to triple that number within the year. Vungle is planning to invest the money on building a suite of monetization tools for mobile app developers, including an in-app mobile video ad exchange.
Google and AOL are confident that the company will succeed in doing so.
“One day, apps will be everywhere — in your car, in your contact lenses, on your TV and refrigerator — and mobile ad tech will have to evolve and adapt,” said Vungle CEO Zain Jaffer.”80% of user time spent on mobile is spent in-app. Apps will be the dominant form of software on a variety of devices — leading-edge devices — for a long time to come, and we are focused on being the monetization infrastructure those apps rely on,” he added.
Mobile advertising is growing at a high rate as reflected by the unexpected US $5 billion dollar increase in spend this year following a similar result from the previous year. Mobile ad-tech is growing along with it.