Voice advertising experts Apptera secure over 10 million dollars… and a former Yahoo! executive
Rating: Latest round of funding heavily favors voice apps
Hot on the heels of news that Ifbyphone has gotten over 4 million dollars of funding, we get heed of another voice app company doing even better. Apptera, creator of the MobileAd XChange, has received 10.5 million dollars in funding from VCs.
What?
MobileAd XChange is an application that places targeted, multimedia voice ads into phone calls. The best example is one from Apptera’s own catalogue. When callers to a voice-enabled Cinema timetable service requested information about Iron Man, they were automatically connected to a voice ad about the upcoming Incredible Hulk film. The multimedia aspect comes into play when the caller can receive coupons and other offers by text from MobileAd XChange.
From the Press Release:
There’s really two things to be discussed in this release. The first is the funding. The second is Apptera’s gain of David Karnstedt, former Senior Vice President of U.S. Sales, to it’s board of directors.
Henry Vogel, Apptera’s president and CEO, was very concise on both points, saying “This latest financing and our new partners will help fuel our continued expansion. I am also excited to work again with David. David’s perspective and relationships will be especially valuable to help us reach the next level.”
Karnstedt himself compared the current position of Apptera to a previous employer, Overture, the first company to place highly relevant advertising on search result pages. “Apptera has a similar opportunity to provide targeted, relevant ads into billions of calls and mobile devices that represent a tremendous opportunity to connect with consumers,” he said.
What we think?
So that’s over 15 million dollars in funding announced for mobile phone voice apps in the last few days. Like I said last night, it looks like the companies who successfully merge voice and text will be the most successful. Apptera has certainly been doing that, as their combination of voice ads with SMS coupons and reminders have proven to be very attractive to both advertisers and consumers.
Also, I can’t help but notice that with Karnstedt moving, and Jerry Yang leaving, Yahoo are now down two lead executives in a very short time period. Do they know something we don’t?
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