Israeli media start-up MediaBoost Ltd. has closed its second financing round, raising $4.7 million from Vertex Venture Capital, Teuza - A Fairchild Technology Venture Ltd. (TASE:TUZA), and BRM Capital, controlled by Eli Barkat. MediaBoost has now raised total of $6.2 million to date.
This is the first early-stage investment in start-up by Barkat since the announcement that BRM is to be disbanded. Barkat said in the past that the winding of up the fund would not affect his investments and that he intended to continue investing in Israeli high-tech companies. Teuza invested $1 million in MediaBoost in the latest financing round, bringing its total investment in the company to 17%. Teuza now holds 17% of MediaBoost.
MediaBoost CEO Alon Matas told "Globes", "We will use the money invested in us to extend our R&D, and there is a marketing side to this as well. We're moving from being a company that specialized in optimization to one that is seeking to be a broker in the Internet media world."
MediaBoost develops technologies and products that automate and optimize decision-making for online media buying. At present most search engines, especially Google, hold auctions based on key words. The keyword-based auction determines the placing of the site on search engines' advertising pages, relative to other advertisers. The auction is continuous, meaning that an advertiser can change the amount he pays and have his ranking on the page changed accordingly. MediaBoost has developed an algorithm that attempts to predict how much a site owner should bid in order win an auction. The algorithm can even suggest alternative key words that cost less.
Aside from search engine optimization, MediaBoost's algorithm also helps improve efficiency in Internet-based marketing campaigns. The company is now aiming to become a meeting place for online product and service marketing, or in other words, to serve as a broker between media buyers, creative designers, and Internet advertisers.
MediaBoost was founded in 2005 by Matas, formerly co-founder of Internet enterprise incubator Compile Ltd, and it employs 20 people. Matas was also one of the founders of Israeli social networking site, "Hevre." A year ago, Uri Shtrichman, formerly marketing director at Empire Online Ltd. (AIM: EOL), invested in the company and became VP business development.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 30, 2008
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