If the names m-Qube, Enpocket, Third Screen Media, Quattro Wireless, and Where mean anything to you, well, you are well-versed in the recent history of Boston mobile advertising companies. (All of the above were acquired in the past six years.)
If Adelphic Mobile means anything to you, well, perhaps you know the future of the field.
The Waltham, MA-based startup said today it has raised a $10 million Series A round led by Google Ventures, with seed investor Matrix Partners also participating. The round brings Adelphic’s total funding to $12 million. (Google general partner Rich Miner is a busy man around Boston these days; he’s also speaking at Xconomy’s Mobile Madness New York conference today.)
“This money will allow us to go to market in a big way,” says Adelphic co-founder and president Jennifer Lum. “We’ve spent a lot of time with our partners and customers, making sure [our platform] is valuable to their businesses. Now we can put it in their hands.”
Adelphic is part of a newer wave of Boston-area mobile companies that are trying to use techniques around big data, analytics, and rich media to help brands and agencies create and serve up better-targeted (and more relevant) ads to consumers. Lum, a veteran of m-Qube, Quattro, and Apple, says Adelphic’s technology reflects a shift from a “legacy focus on devices” by advertisers to being able to reach “real people.”
What that means is Adelphic’s software works behind the scenes to crunch loads of data on how mobile consumers are interacting with content and ads. It knows which people in a given city at breakfast time, say, might respond favorably to an ad from Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s displayed through a media partner.
“We can identify segments of users that are important,” Lum says. “We’ll tell you how many are available, the price we can acquire them for you, and help you launch a campaign.”
But any real-time targeting of consumers raises the specter of
