the Rubicon Project Adds on for $33 Million in Funding

Advertising Technology Company Delivers 150% Revenue Growth in Q109

LOS ANGELES the Rubicon Project, an Internet advertising technology company that pioneered Ad Network Optimization, has added $13 million in venture funding bringing total financial investments to $33 million. The round includes an additional $5 million in venture funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund and IDG Ventures Asia. Silicon Valley Bank provided $8 million in venture debt. The additional capital will fuel business growth initiatives including strategic acquisitions, research and development, infrastructure and international expansion.

“the Rubicon Project aims to automate the buying and selling of all online ad inventory. First we tackled the fractured ad network landscape by creating the industry’s largest and most successful Ad Network Optimization solution to provide publishers with an effective channel management strategy for their unsold ad inventory,” said Frank Addante, CEO and Founder. “We now count many of the world’s largest media brands as loyal, happy customers. Up next is expanding our technology to answer customer demand around the optimization of non-guaranteed ad inventory; we’ve established the largest source of demand online for premium publishers, and we’ll extend that demand opportunity to all of their inventory.”

In the first quarter of 2009, a period marked by difficulty throughout the economy, and during the quarter usually noted for ad spend slowdown after the holiday season, the company is reporting 150% revenue growth over the fourth quarter of 2008.

“In today’s economy, markets move towards efficiency. Just like we saw when we invested in Overture, companies like them and Google and now the Rubicon Project thrive during economic change,” said Sumant Mandal, Managing Director at Clearstone Venture Partners.

“the Rubicon Project is the leader in the market and solely focused on creating a truly innovative advertising platform to benefit the whole eco-system – without conflict of operating an ad network like Google, Yahoo, or MSN,” said Raj Kapoor, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund.

Meet Frank Addante and additional members of the Rubicon Project team at ad:tech San Francisco (April 21st and 22nd), where the company will introduce Rubicon OnDemand, an efficient, easy and lucrative solution for ad networks and other audience sales representatives in search of premium inventory. Demonstrations will be conducted at the company’s booth (#1672). Visit http://www.rubiconproject.com on April 21st for more details or submit a request to meet with a Rubicon Project team member via adtechsf (at) rubiconproject.com.

Mark your ad:tech schedule: On Tuesday, April 21st at 4:15pm-5:15pm, Frank Addante, will join Bob Davis from Highland Capital and others to discuss: “So Many Networks, So Little Time: How to Determine Whether a Network or Exchange Can Support Your Business.”

About the Rubicon Project

Based in Los Angeles, the Rubicon Project launched in 2007 and set on a mission to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry. Responding to one of the largest problems plaguing website publishers today – monetizing ad space that goes unsold (as much as 70 – 80 percent) across a fast-growing number of global ad networks – the Rubicon Project pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization (ANO). Backed by $35 million in funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, and IDG Ventures, the Rubicon Project developed its patent-pending Smart Matching™ technology, which uses billions of pieces of proprietary market data to match each publisher ad impression to the best money-making opportunities from ad networks.

The company serves 1500 premium customers (publishers like Gannett, Salon, Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive and American Greetings) by optimizing more than 40 billion ads each month across hundreds of demand sources. Reaching more than 500 million unique Internet users, the Rubicon Project is one of the largest sources of ad inventory and reach on the Internet and the preferred source of targeted, audience-segmented inventory for ad networks and other resellers, many exclusive, around the world. The unique combination of demand optimization and SmartMatch™ technology drives revenue lift ranging from 30-300% for the Rubicon Project’s customers.

Source: the Rubicon Project