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Greystripe Secures $5.5 Million in Series C Funding to Unify Online and Mobile Advertising into One Solution


WEBWIRE

The company, which has powered over 180 million ad-supported mobile downloads, makes it easy to buy across online and mobile

(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) – March 11, 2009 – Greystripe, the leading rich media mobile advertising network, today announced that they have raised an additional $5.5 million in Series C funding led by its existing investor, Incubic Venture Capital, with Steamboat Ventures and Monitor Ventures participating. The company, which has already experienced strong growth in the mobile content distribution and monetization business, has solved the biggest problem in mobile advertising.

Despite massive industry projections around mobile advertising’s growth, many brands and agencies have debated the additional value in creating mobile-centric advertising formats and campaigns. Greystripe has solved this issue by integrating its mobile inventory directly into industry-accepted online media buying solutions. This integration allows for ad agencies to simply click to add mobile and also allows Flash advertisements, normally only available on the Web, to appear on the iPhone.

With a unified ad platform connecting mobile and online, the popular third screen now offers Web-like campaign management and measurement, such as engagement, while expanding to new levels of targeting, such as location.

“In an economy where ad budgets are shrinking, mobile advertising campaigns will expand only by becoming part of the online ad budgets,” said Darren Kuhn, Director of eMarketing at LeapFrog, a Greystripe partner.

Fueled by this new round of financing, Greystripe’s focus is to continue to seamlessly extend online ad campaigns to mobile. A recent campaign with Hewlett-Packard (HP) came out of HP’s digital advertising budget where they simply checked a box for mobile and were able to extend their campaign to the third screen. The effects of the rich media HP campaign, which ran from January 16 to February 6, will be released in a Comscore Study in April 2009. This campaign follows Greystripe’s recent, successful rich media ad campaign with Unilever Axe which saw a 15% brand lift and also came out of Axe’s online ad budget.

“For too long the mobile advertising world has built a silo approach to the business,” said Michael Chang, CEO and Co-Founder of Greystripe. “Those days are over. It’s time to join the online advertising world and bring new value in terms of reach, targeting and interactivity.”

In addition to their funding, Robert J. Majteles, Founder of Treehouse Capital LLC, has joined Greystripe’s Board of Directors.

About Greystripe
Greystripe is the rich media mobile advertising network. Greystripe’s product suite enables brand advertisers to communicate their brand message with a unique mobile audience, publishers to gain advertising revenue by serving ads through their games, and consumers to play high-quality games for free. Greystripe’s in-game advertising system is protected by a broad array of patents pending and currently serves ads into more than 900 game titles from 150 publishers supporting over 1,400 handset models. Greystripe reaches millions of mobile game players by powering over 140 Catalog distribution partners, through its online portal GameJump.com, on the mobile Web at wap.gamejump.com, and through the iPhone Appstore. Greystripe was named an AlwaysOn OnMedia 100 winner in 2009, AlwaysOn Global 100 winner in 2008, Red Herring Global 100 winner in 2007 and the Under the Radar Best in Show: Mobility winner in 2006.

To put your brand into mobile contact Greystripe at sales@greystripe.com and visit us at http://www.greystripe.com

About Incubic Venture Capital
Incubic is an early stage technology fund. The fund was founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, and is dedicated to building great and lasting companies from the earliest phase.

About Steamboat Ventures
Inspired by the bold entrepreneurial spirit of Walt Disney, Steamboat Ventures is named after the famous Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat Willie. Theatrically released in New York in 1928, Steamboat Willie was the screen debut of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. It was also the first animated cartoon to use synchronized sound—a great innovation at the time.

Our mission at Steamboat Ventures is to help young companies successfully face the challenges of becoming leaders in their markets. We invest in early- to mid-stage, technology-focused companies that are pursuing opportunities in emerging digital media and consumer technology markets. Although the fund is primarily focused on technology investments, we also consider venture investments in other areas of broad strategic importance to The Walt Disney Company.

About Monitor Ventures
Monitor Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in consumer, enterprise, and industrial companies. It partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to commercialize technology into world-class products and services. The firm leverages the investment, operating, and entrepreneurial experience of its partners with its strategic relationship with the international consulting firm the Monitor Group to accelerate portfolio companies’ path to customers, capital and profitability.



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