The venture capitalists with the most un-exited AdTech companies.
[Edit: After the initial post of this, several people sent me some more companies to add. A couple of these companies I don’t consider ‘adtech’–as noted, there’s not a bright line, but I haven’t counted search, marketing tech, or marketing info companies–some just don’t have investors listed in Crunchbase, but a few made a difference, including knocking me out of third place to fourth. There are now 46 VCs on the list.]
| Investor | # |
Investments |
| SV Angel/Ron Conway | 21 | Adara Media, AddThis, AdReady, Anchor Intelligence, AppNexus, Booshaka, Factual, Inadco, Luminate, Magnetic, Moat, Perfect Audience, Rapleaf, Sharethrough, SteelHouse, Swrve, TellApart, The Trade Desk, TrialPay, Vungle, Yext |
| First Round Capital | 19 | 33Across, Adaptly, Aggregate Knowledge, AppNexus, Curalate, DoubleVerify, Flurry, Gigya, GumGum, Influitive, LiveIntent, Moat, OpenX, PerformLine, Pinch Media, SAY Media, Solve Media, VigLink, Yieldex |
| DFJ | 12 | 4INFO, ContextWeb, CTS Media, Flurry, isocket, JiWire, PubMatic, PulsePoint, RichRelevance, ShareThis, TrialPay, Virool |
| Neu VC | 11 | 33Across, Flurry, Magnetic, Media Armor, Metamarkets, Optimal, PerformLine, PlaceIQ, awe.sm, The Trade Desk, Yieldbot |
| 500 Startups | 11 | AdStage, BoostCTR, Influitive, LaunchBit, Medialets, MediaSpike, OneSpot, Republic Project, StackSocial, Virool, Vungle |
| Greycroft | 10 | 33Across, Adly, Collective Media, Extreme Reach, Media Armor, TagMan, Nativo, Resonate, Skimlinks, SteelHouse |
| Founder Collective | 9 | BoostCTR, Convertro, Factual, SHIFT, Integral Ad Science, Magnetic, Metamarkets, Moat, The Trade Desk |
| Battery | 8 | BlueKai, BoostCTR, Kontagent, LiveIntent, Lotame, Mass Relevance, Tealium, TrialPay |
| NEA | 8 | AddThis, Compass Labs, Curalate, GumGum, Influitive, SAY Media, Silk, Videology |
| Metamorphic | 8 | 33Across, BoostCTR, Chango, isocket, Madison Logic, Mass Relevance, Tapad, TapCommerce |
| Floodgate | 8 | AdRoll, Anchor Intelligence, Ensighten, GENWI, Mass Relevance, Metamarkets, OneSpot, Sharethrough |
| Crosslink | 8 | Bizo, Flurry, JellyCloud, Kiip, RadiumOne, RichRelevance, SET, Vungle |
| Trinity | 7 | Act-On Software, Dynamic Signal, Namo Media, Perfect Market, RadiumOne, Red Aril, TubeMogul |
| DAG | 7 | Aggregate Knowledge, Convertro, Gigya, Lockerz, OpenX, TRUSTe, Visible Measures |
| August Capital | 7 | Adara Media, Adchemy, Flingo, Gravity, Luminate, PubMatic, SAY Media |
| iNovia | 7 | 33Across, Chango, Collective Media, Media Armor, TagMan, Resonate, TripleLift |
| Mayfield Fund | 7 | Adchemy, AudienceScience, BlackArrow, Gigya, Moat, RevenueScience, the Rubicon Project |
| Sequoia | 7 | Capillary Technologies, CTS Media, Drawbridge, Flite, Innovid, Kontera, Taykey |
| Accel | 7 | AdRoll, Collective Media, Krux, myThings, OpenX, Origami Logic, TRUSTe |
| Norwest Venture Partners | 7 | Act-On Software, Brand.net, Capillary Technologies, JiWire, SocialVibe, Sojern, Turn |
| Siemer Ventures | 6 | Adly, Connexity, SHIFT, Optimal, StackSocial, StrikeAd |
| Redpoint | 6 | BlueKai, Gravity, Impact Radius, Inadco, Intent Media, SocialVibe |
| Google Ventures | 6 | Luminate, MediaSpike, Namo Media, Republic Project, VigLink, Vungle |
| Upfront Ventures | 6 | Adly, Factual, Gravity, GumGum, awe.sm, ADOMIC (formerly YieldMetrics) |
| Lerer Ventures | 6 | ActionX, Adaptly, SHIFT, LiveIntent, Moat, Tapad |
| Menlo Ventures | 6 | DataXu, eXelate, Flurry, Media6Degrees (m6d), NebuAd, Virool |
| True Ventures | 6 | appssavvy, BrightRoll, Kiip, Metamarkets, SocialPandas, TripleLift |
| Comcast Ventures | 6 | BlackArrow, Integrate, JiWire, Videology, Visible World, WhoSay |
| Kleiner Perkins | 6 | Affectiva, Aggregate Knowledge, Drawbridge, InMobi, Lockerz, SessionM |
| Index Ventures | 6 | Adconion Media Group, Criteo, Factual, OpenX, Outbrain, TrialPay |
| USVP | 6 | 4INFO, Act-On Software, Inadco, JellyCloud, Media6Degrees (m6d), PlaceIQ |
| Rose Tech | 5 | 33Across, LinkStorm, Magnetic, PerformLine, SAY Media |
| Coriolis Ventures | 5 | AppNexus, Integral Ad Science, Magnetic, Martini Media Inc, Media6Degrees (m6d) |
| Softbank Capital | 5 | ActionX, Criteo, JellyCloud, Taykey, xAd |
| Trident | 5 | BrightRoll, eXelate, JiWire, Sojern, Turn |
| AOL Ventures | 5 | appssavvy, Metamarkets, OpenX, Solve Media, Vungle |
| Verizon Ventures | 5 | ActionX, AdTheorent, Kiip, Local Response, RUN |
| Foundry | 5 | Integrate, isocket, Medialets, awe.sm, Triggit |
| Softtech | 5 | isocket, Rapleaf, StrikeAd, VigLink, Vungle |
| KBS+ Ventures | 5 | Adaptly, Cross Pixel Media, PlaceIQ, awe.sm, Yieldbot |
| Felicis Ventures | 5 | BrightRoll, Factual, Rapleaf, RichRelevance, Solve Media |
| Charles River Ventures | 5 | Adaptly, Fiksu, Magnetic, Mochila, SessionM |
| Intel Capital | 5 | AdsIt, BlackArrow, Crisp Media, Swrve, [x+1] |
| Lightspeed | 5 | Influitive, MyBuys, Origami Logic, Outbrain, Rhythm NewMedia |
| Baseline | 5 | Adara Media, Anchor Intelligence, Sharethrough, TrialPay, TRUSTe |
| Venrock | 5 | AppNexus, Bizo, Dynamic Signal, Martini Media Inc, Media6Degrees (m6d) |
What is and isn’t AdTech is open to debate. If I left any companies out, let me know. I used my list of 600+ adtech companies, weeded out the sold or IPO’d, bounced the remainder off Crunchbase to pull the investors and compiled.
Couple companies you might want to consider adding that are funded by VCs on this list, based on my manual checking: Namo Media, TrueLens (depending on your definition of adtech), Virool, Socialflow, Adtheorant, RunDSP, ActionX, Parsely, Bottlenose (again depending), TapCommerce, Adcade, NativeAd.
Very interesting! I would love to see the angel version of this. I suppose CrunchBase doesn’t track it, though.
They do, sort of. But the data is so incomplete that I feel bad using it. I should check out AngelList’s data, that might be better.
Thanks for this comprehensive list.
Do you have any suggestions on which particular VCs would be the best, and most willing, to give advice on a new ad placement engine? We may have serendipitously built a such a system, but we are not in the ad space right now and are looking to get feedback from experts.
Coriolis Ventures also invested in EveryScreen Media, which in June 2013 was acquired by m6d.