Boston-based DataXu, whose bidding engine helps online advertisers decide which advertising purchases are most likely to pay off in the form of conversions or click-throughs, has raised $11 million in new funding, according to an announcement today.
New investor Menlo Ventures of Menlo Park, CA, led the round, which was joined by existing investors Flybridge Capital Partners and Atlas Venture. Menlo Ventures managing director John Jarve will join DataXu’s board.
Xconomy profiled DataXu in December 2009. The company, built around decision-support software originally developed by MIT aeronautics and astronautics professor Edward Crawley, was founded in 2007 and raised a $6 million venture round in the spring of 2009.
DataXu’s system evaluates ad inventory available from auction-based ad exchanges such as those operated by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft and makes real-time decisions about which ads represent the best deals for advertisers, based on data such as the identity of the venue, the time of day, or the day of the week. The company said in today’s news release that market response to the platform has “exceeded expectations.”
“We are very pleased with the early results that our system has achieved for some of the world’s leading brands and their agencies,” DataXu president and CEO Mike Baker said in a statement.
Jarve, at Menlo Ventures, said his firm chose to invest in DataXu rather than competitors in the market for so-called “demand-side” platforms “because of their proven leadership team and scalable, differentiated technology, which is delivering significant value for its customers.”
