Bangalore based Jivox, the first self-service, online video advertising platform, has announced that it has closed a $10.7 million Series A round of financing led by Opus Capital. New investor Helion Venture Partners, an India-focused venture fund, also participated in the round, along with Jivox’s existing investors.
The funds will be used to continue development of the Jivox online video advertising platform, as well as to expand the company's sales and marketing efforts in both India and the US.
The company, headquartered in California, USA, had commenced its India operations in March 2008, through a sales and development office in Bangalore.
Naren Nachiappan, Managing Director-India, Jivox, said, “The Jivox online video ad platform enables businesses to harness the power of online video advertising by reducing the cost and complexity of developing and placing online video ads.”
He added, “Since its launch in March 2008, Jivox has seen broad adoption of its self-service online video ad platform by advertisers in a wide variety of industries, including travel sites, financial and real estate services, matrimonial services, transportation companies and restaurants. Jivox has also gained significant traction with publishers, who are eager to monetize the content on their sites and tap into a huge pool of smaller advertisers that would otherwise be confined to banner or search ads.”
The Jivox video network currently reaches more than 40 million viewers, Nachiappan informed.
“Online video advertising is the fastest growing segment of digital online marketing, but the cost of creating and placing video ads threatened to keep this medium beyond the reach of most businesses. Jivox makes it easy for both advertisers and publishers to begin taking advantage of online video advertising. The tremendous momentum Jivox has seen since launching just a few months ago demonstrates the strong demand or this type of service,” said founder Nesamoney.
Said Ken Elefant, General Partner, Opus Capital, “Jivox has done an outstanding job proving its concept, gaining a large group of satisfied advertisers and building its network. The traction Jivox has gained in just a few months is a testament to the significant online video ad market opportunity as well as the strength of their team.”
The Jivox platform combines a self-service video ad creation tool, proprietary targeting technology, and offers advertisers a complete, do-it-yourself service for online video advertising.
Jivox was founded in 2007 by Diaz Nesamoney, the entrepreneur behind Informatica and Celequest (acquired in 2007 by Cognos).
Source: Exchange 4 Media