Kiptronic, a San Francisco company that lets publishers insert ads into audio and video files before they are downloaded for listening on a device, has raised $4 million in a first round of funding.
The investment was led by Blueprint Ventures and Prism VentureWorks.
Kiptronic’s technology works on files that are downloaded onto mobile phones, iPods and PCs for listening to later off-line. This is referred to as “podcasting,” and differs from video “streaming” process, whereby someone gets a broadcast on their phone via a cellular or broadband network. There are plenty of other ad-insertion companies serving that market.
Podbridge, a company backed by Mayfield and Worldview, is doing something very similar (see our review here) to Kiptronic.
Kiptonic, however, doesn’t require a software download. Podbridge does; and when a user registers, they fill out a form allowing Podbridge to get the person’s demographic and other details, to better target ads.
People prefer not to download a software to their device, Bart Schachter, a venture capitalist with Blueprint, tells VentureBeat. Kiptronic may relinquish lots of potential information about a user, but Schachter says Kiptronic can still pick up location information about a user (by tracking IP addresses) when users download files, and can look at what they’re downloading to find out more about the person’s tastes. Moreover, he says many people provide false information when filling out forms like Podbridge’s.
Kiptronic works with Akamai, a so-called “content delivery network,” which allows Kiptronic’ s software to insert ads for a publisher without any additional steps. Kiptronic’s ad server sits in the network.
The company is growing quickly. It supported 47 million downloads in the fourth quarter, and is growing quickly, Schachter said.
The company has seven employees, and that number will double over the next few weeks, Schachter said.
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Venture Midwest » Kneading 2.0 Dough… said:
[...] Lesen Sie dieses jetzt! I apologize to disgruntled readers searching for baking advice…Unless you are forming an online bakery start-up, this post is of no interest. A primary criticism of 2.0 companies surrounds the abundance of faulty business models focusing on free software and services. Elusive online advertising remains a proclaimed revenue generator for many capital seeking companies, but I struggle to justifying large investments in start-ups with advertisment- only revenue models. Can investors expect exborbitant returns on $15 Million online video investment? Not unless my good friend’s Time and Chance recommended involvement within infrastructure building companies such as MySpace and YouTube. Some investors and analysts link dismissal returns to SOX restrictions, dwindling IPO market, or debilitating Michael Arrington posts. However, the lack of Web 2.0 user fees and products deserve equal consideration - revenue is not usually synonymous with free. The aforementioned Arrington’s post on SmugMug illustrates the astonishing link existing between sales and revenue. SmugMug - a photo sharing site - utilizes typical Web 2.0 user- oriented elements like file sharing, community experience, tags. But unlike other companies, use of SmugMug is attached to varying users fees. The result: no institutional funding, 19 employees, and a reported $10 Million 2006 revenue from 100,000 users. While 100K is diminutive compared to YouTube traffic, 100K mutliplied by a minimum $40 annual fee is far more impressive than YouTube’s Million x Zero. Despite publicity of a revenue generating 2.0 start-up, the advertising bug is still crawling evidenced by the funding of ad-insertion start-up Kiptronic and Brazilian-based blogger tool, booBox. [...]