Video recommendation widgets start-up Taboola Inc. has raised $9 million its third financing round, led by Crescent Point Lantern, and joined by previous investor Evergreen Venture Partners.
Taboola CEO Adam Singolda, the son of musician Avi Singolda, founded the company in 2007. The company has raised $15.4 million to date.
Crescent Point Lantern was set up in July as a joint venture between Israelis Ohad Finkelstein, a former partner at Venrock Israel, and Yuval Shahar, a former executive at Cisco Systems Israel Ltd., and Singapore-based Crescent Point.
Taboola CTO Lior Golan said that the company would use proceeds from the financing to invest in technology, marketing, and natural growth. The company has 35 employees at its Tel Aviv and New York offices.
Taboola's video recommendations are about premium content - video articles and trailers - not video clips on YouTube. The concept is to estimate the amount of time users spend on content sites and to encourage them to consume additional content.
Taboola has two flagship products: Video2Video, which links viewers to additional relevant video content; and Text2Video, which offers recommendations about relevant video content for users of text content.
Other recommendation engines are usually based on the ability to analyze users' context and conduct. Taboola adds another factor, which obtains users' real-time conduct. For example, if a user watches a video clip until the end, or fast forwards and opens a new page on the browser.
Taboola's clients include "The New York Times, "CNN", "USA Today", and "Bloomberg".
In an interview with "Globes" in October 2010, Golan said that "Bloomberg" saw a multifold increase in the viewing of video clips after it installed the company's technology.
Taboola's recommendation engine is installed for free at the content sites, while its business model is based on hits on ads and video clips at other content sites. According to IVC, the company had $2 million revenue in 2010, and Golan says that it is close to turning a profit.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 28, 2011
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