New York’s HookLogic said in a press release Thursday it raised $9.5 million in financing from Bain Capital Ventures in Boston. This marks the first institutional funding for HookLogic.
Jonathan Opdyke, CEO of HookLogic, said in an interview with Xconomy the funding will help his company nearly double its staff. “We’ll hire at least 50 people over the next six to nine months,” he says. HookLogic currently has a staff of 60 and plans to add more technical personnel to further develop its software-as-a-service platform and additional sales staff to expand its reach in North America’s and Europe’s travel, retail, and automotive industries. HookLogic’s current clients include retailer Overstock.com (now known as O.co) and travel website Expedia.
HookLogic, founded in 2004, provides a platform for marketing on e-tailing sites akin to paid product placements within bricks-and-mortar stores. “Think of it as a very specialized ad server for e-commerce,” Opdyke says. “It takes the site’s own product and brand content and repurposes that into advertising placements.” He compares such ad placements to products positioned at the front of grocery aisles and near checkout lanes for maximum exposure. “It’s a very common concept in physical stores,” Opdyke says. “A lot of it hasn’t moved online yet.”
Though the ads primarily steer consumers to goods available on the websites, third-party ads relevant to such products may also be featured. “If you’re selling dishwashers, a dishwasher soap company may want to advertise near that,” Opdyke says.
