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Jivox, leading global interactive online video advertising company, has announced that it has secured $8.2 million in financing to support rapid adoption of its interactive video advertising technology. Fortisure Ventures led the round and existing investors Opus Capital, Helion Advisors and Diaz Nesamoney reaffirmed their commitment to Jivox through their participation. In addition to the new financing, Mani Subramanian, CEO of Fortisure Ventures and John Squires, CEO of Akademos will join Jivox’s Board of Directors.
“The industry is at a tipping point as advertisers now understand the need for more engaging and creative interactive ads that reach viewers on multiple screens and across social channels,” said Diaz Nesamoney, CEO and founder of Jivox. “This strategic investment will allow us to accelerate the rapid adoption of our interactive video advertising platform, which we designed to solve technology complexities of delivering creative and innovative online video ads at scale and on any screen. Additionally, we plan to use this investment to build out our technology platform and realize our vision of bringing interactive ad technologies to all screens.”
A new eMarketer forecast estimates mobile ad spending in the US will reach $1.23 billion this year, a 65 percent increase over 2010. As such, mobile is increasingly part of the overall ad buy and ensuring video ads effectively run on multiple screens without complexities is no longer an option but a must. Jivox, which currently delivers more than 1,000 interactive video ad campaigns a month, is uniquely positioned to address this market need as it is the only platform that truly enables interactive video ads to run on multiple screens with an ad serving infrastructure that can deliver at scale.
“We’re very excited about the success Jivox is having in the market and see the potential of Jivox to fundamentally alter the way interactive digital video ads are created, delivered and measured,” said Mani Subramanian, CEO of Fortisure Ventures. “As an investment firm that prides itself on identifying breakthrough innovations in the ad market, we believe that Jivox’s interactive advertising technology will advance this industry and help bring creativity and innovation to digital video, attracting more brands to spend on digital media.”
“The APAC region and India in particular represent an increasingly sophisticated market with a proliferation of video enabled smart devices that are handheld, in the car, and at home. The Jivox platform’s ability to seamlessly create, deliver and optimize interactive video ads across this range of devices makes it a great fit for this market, and this investment will allow us to accelerate our growth here.” said Naren Nachiappan, Managing Director, Jivox.
In addition to the funding, Jivox announced two new board members:
- Mani Subramanian, CEO of Fortisure Ventures LLC, is a widely recognized entrepreneur. With more than 40 years of experience in the global information technology industry, Mani has significant leadership, general management, marketing and sales expertise, with a flair for turnaround situations in the corporate world. Prior to Fortisure, he founded IT Solutions, subsequently re-branded as Caritor in 2003. Under Mani’s leadership, Caritor grew to more than 3,500 employees in four continents and merged with Keane to create a $1 billion IT services company. Mani was Chairman of Keane until it was acquired in 2010 by NTT Data.
John Squires, CEO of Akademos, a turnkey virtual bookstore and marketplace, is a renowned industry expert in digital media and advertising having previously founded Next Issue Media, the digital publishing consortium joined by Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time Inc. John was previously EVP at Time Inc., where he was responsible for leading digital operations and overseeing Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Money and Golf magazines.
