2015
QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
In This Issue
Company Summaries
2
Venture Capital Market Update
3
Dstillery
Shedding Light on New Digital Buying Practices: Dstilery Named Tier 1 Compliant
4
MediaMath
MediaMath Appoints Saurabh Dangwal as VP-Sales
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RANKED: The Hotest pre-IPO ad tech startups of 2015
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MediaMath Announces Digital Advertising Expert as Sales Director for Spain
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Brunswicks Comart joins MediaMath as first global comms head
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MediaMath Appoints Media Industry Veteran Oeter Oiazza as General Counsel
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Integral Ad Science
ABC Report Highlights Integral Ad Sciences Content Verification Product
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Integral Ad Science Releases Q1 2015 Report with Industrys First Mobile In-App Viewability...
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Digilant Announces Strategic Partnership with Integral Ad Science
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Integral Ad Science Adds Four Data Technoloyg Experts to Its Team
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Integral Ad Science Opens Offices in Paris, Tokyo
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Skyword
Skyword Hiring, Opening Office in Pittsburgh
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Skyword Announces 1st Annual Content Rising Summit in Boston
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Skyword Cited for Highest Gross Customer Satisfaction Scores in Content Marketing Report
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Simpli.fi
Simpli.fi Extends Capabilities of Its Programmatic Platform for Localized Campaigns
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Localytics
Localytics Acquires Splitforce to Accelerate Predictive App Marketing Capabilities
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Localytics Introduces Apple Watch SDK
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Former ExactTarget Head of Sales, Scott Bleczinski, Joins Localytics as CRO
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App Marketer Localytics Adds Roku and Email to Its Repertoire
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Pixability
Pixability Completes $18M Series C Financing
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Pixability Execs Co-Author Definitive Book on YouTube Strategy
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Qualia
Qualia Named a Finalist in the Ad Serving Platform Category in Digidays Signal Awards
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LISNR
CNBC Names LISNT a Top 50 Digital Disruptor
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LISNR Lures Exec from one of Americas Largest Music Tech Firms
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LISNR Wins Best Content Marketing Tech Platform in 2015 Digiday Content Marketing Awards
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LISNR Second-Screen Technology Wins 2015 Gold Cannes Lion for Innovation in Mobile
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Cinci. Company Poised for More Growth with Big Award, Additional Founder on Board
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Iris.tv
Iris.tv Raises $5.3M to Deliver Video Recommendations
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Friends,
We are pleased to provide you with an update on Progress Ventures for the second quarter of 2015. This year to date, we have completed our
first close of Fund 3, with our third investment in video recommendation engine technology company IRIS.TV.
Fund 1
Dstillery was named a Tier 1 Compliant company under Trustworthy Accountability Group Transparency Program.
MediaMath announced several key executive appointments including VP Sales, Sales Director for Spain, VP and Global Head of
Communications, and General Counsel.
Integral Ad Science opened offices in Paris and Tokyo, added four data technology experts to its team, partnered with Millennial
Media for first in-app viewability guarantee, partnered with Digilant to reinforce brand safety and high quality media placements, and
released a report with the industrys first mobile in-app viewability benchmark and international metrics.
Fund 2
Skyword hosted its first Annual Content Rising Summit in Boston over three days in June, and announced it will be moving to a larger
space in Pennsylvania as it grows its engineer team in Pittsburgh.
Trust Metrics recently partnered with JamLoop to bring brand safety scoring to JamLoops private video marketplace.
Simpli.fi extends the capabilities of its programmatic platform for localized campaigns with GPS-based geo-fencing.
Localytics acquired Splitforce to accelerate its predictive app marketing capabilities, introduced Apple watch SDK and former
ExactTarget Head of Sales, Scott Bleczinski, as CRO.
Pixability completed $18M Series C financing in late March.
Qualia was named a finalist in the Ad Serving Platform category in Digidays Signal Awards.
Fund 3
CraveLabs continues to gain traction and strengthen business development partnerships.
LISNR was named CNBC Top 50 Digital Disruptor, won Best Content Marketing Tech Platform in 2015 Digiday Content Marketing
Awards, and won a 2015 Gold Cannes Lion for innovation in mobile. Eric Allen, previously SVP at Gracenote for three years, joined as
a board member.
IRIS.TV raised $5.3M in Series A funding to expand its team, develop new features and continue business development.
Nick MacShane
Founding Partner
nick@progressventures.com
Sam Thompson
Founding Partner
sam@progressventures.com
| June 2, 2015
http://bit.ly/1gHG41W
Already this year, TAG has unveiled two major initiatives: the first to
Dstillery
engage:BDR
OpenX
Going forward, TAG plans a series of important changes as part of
the Inventory Quality Guidelines 2.1. There will be three main areas
of improvement, all designed to help the IQG reach a wider audience
and offer a more robust set of disclosures for the benefit of the Digital
Advertising Industry:
http://read.bi/1Jwcua3
Dangwal has also led sales teams at Komli Media and Yahoo! India.
Rahul Vasudev, Managing Director, APAC, at MediaMath, said,
We are delighted to welcome Saurabh to the MediaMath team. His
passion for technology is without parallel in the region, and he is
one of the smartest digital media practitioners I have the pleasure of
knowing. At a time of significant growth for MediaMath, Saurabhs
knowledge and consultative approach will be invaluable to our
current and future clients in the APAC region.
http://read.bi/1Jwcua3
fared badly in recent months, but behind the scenes there are some
This ranking looks at the hotter companies subject to IPO (or at least
big exit deal) rumors right now. Our data comes from CrunchBase,
Weve tried to rank them by revenues, but have also taken into account
| June 1, 2015
| June 8, 2015
http://bit.ly/1G7eAdP
http://bit.ly/1IVXqEs
http://bit.ly/1M37Ilh
http://bit.ly/1DnCc04
area of brand safety online. This will provide the transparency and
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company has been able to expand and engage in deep study of fraud
in view for the United Kingdom, and fraud levels ranging from 8.7
mobile in-app viewability metric shows to the industry that not all ads
are in view for this platform. Across the industry, we should continue
found to be on autoplay.
http://mwne.ws/1PROgZv
Published by PR Newswire
http://prn.to/1IVZGvi
| May 4, 2015
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| May 4, 2015
http://bit.ly/1IKjeRx
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said Scott Knoll, CEO of Integral Ad Science. Jamie, Sergei, Rob and
first office in Japan, but it is not Integrals first contact with Japanese
marketers: The company struck a deal with Yahoo Japan last year.
that Yahoo Japan will scale its partnership with Integrals local team
others. In 2014, Integrals data science team and tech team grew by
http://bit.ly/1DvDqXi
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http://bit.ly/1NchsZ9
http://bit.ly/1IEQkOq
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| July 1, 2015
http://bit.ly/1M7L9vT
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the tool learns to show successful variations more often and quickly
owners can then use that insight to create relevant, timely marketing
campaigns via the integrated Push API, which facilitates the ability
and web apps has made the app opportunity a data opportunity,
App marketers must know what users are doing in Watch apps in order
to send topical and targeted push notifications that draw users back
into the app rather than pushing them away by opting out. Users who
enable push have a nearly three times higher retention rate compared
to those who disable push. With app marketing and analytics in one
including:
undisclosed amount.
Media/entertainment apps can compare which users view breaking
news on the Watch versus the iPhone and adjust the length of their
notifications accordingly. Health and fitness apps can serve Watch
users with real-time information about their workout intensity to help
them reach their fitness goals. Retailers can notify frequent buyers of a
location-based promotion when they pass a certain store and monitor
| May 7, 2015
http://bit.ly/1UqhAZa
mobile and web apps, today introduced its Apple Watch Software
get a clear sense of how their users are interacting with the Watch,
http://bit.ly/1JO8EtG
said Raj Aggarwal, CEO of Localytics. Our Apple Watch SDK gives
our customers the best chance of understanding how the Watch will
impact their business, providing them with the knowledge they need
and web apps, today announced that Scott Bleczinski has joined the
company as its first Chief Revenue Officer. A long-time sales leader for
ExactTarget, Scott will oversee Localytics Sales and Customer Success
With the Localytics Apple Watch SDK, app marketers can monitor
continued growth.
with the Watch, how app usage differs on the Watch versus other devices,
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Our rapid growth makes this a very important role for the company
far more exciting than the Watch, because it helps marketers bring
becoming a platform.
Sales for ExactTarget, where he led sales growth from $1M to $115M,
eventually leading to the companys acquisition by Salesforce in 2013.
Aggarwal said, the platforms default was one message per device,
raised a $35M series D funding round and passed the 200 employee
app users, for instance the platform now enables email, in-app
http://bit.ly/1GeXqHY
and bringing digital media set-top box Roku into its fold.
solution.
retrieve analytics from, that wearable. Apps on Roku are now similarly
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| April 8, 2015
http://bit.ly/1EFKcHY
growth rate of 240% over the past five years. The cost efficiencies of
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http://bit.ly/1EUtG8U
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http://bit.ly/1gPSpkA
The awards, which will be presented for the first time this year, honor
and content/publishing.
Camry are both up for best creative platform, while its Real World
Francisco.
For additional information, visit www.qualia-media.com.
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LISNRs Smart Tones technology is poised to be the dominant datacommunications standard for a wide range of mobile needs, either in
tandem with or in place of the ubiquitous Bluetooth standard, said
Williams. And while we have enjoyed many major milestones in our
brief history, having CNBC recognize our success and potential for
the future is right up there as the most satisfying.
LISNRs Smart Tones technology is a new communications protocol
that sends data over inaudible sound waves, turning any audio speaker
into a beacon that is easily heard by virtually every mobile device
manufactured today. There is a wide range of uses for Smart Tones,
including real-time and hyper-local customer engagement, consumer
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tones.
companys board. The more they talked, the more enticing coming to
ticking off where Id be able to help and I thought they were really well
positioned to where the industry was going and ultimately replace or
Cincinnati startup Lisnr has hired a new president who cut his teeth
told me. It says we do have something that could be just as big if not
growing one of the countrys largest music tech companies into a $250
million business. Eric Allen spent the last three years as an senior
the market.
media, Allen told me. I think the opportunities are far greater than
http://bit.ly/1MW48dA
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in the world.
LISNR Smart Tones technology can turn any audio speaker into a
devices.
And using our intuitive content portal, which led to this great award,
LISNR Smart Tones technology can turn any audio speaker into a
beacon capable of sending video, data and messages to any digital
Smart Tones have a wide range of uses, including real-time and hyper-
device.
Every brand wants a better way to engage with consumers over mobile,
Internet of Things.
but to date efforts have largely been trial and error, with an emphasis
on error, said Rodney Williams, co-founder and CEO of LISNR.
Weve been showing the worlds top brands that we have a better
cost structure.
Smart Tones technology has many benefits over other common
There are hundreds of startups trying to increase engagement with
consumers and to make devices even more critical to our day to day
Of note, Smart Tones uses far less power, requires no costly new
approach, and that we have the best underlying technology for this
mission.
There are hundreds of startups trying to increase mobile engagement
http://bit.ly/1eXR7SU
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http://on.wsj.com/1gEeeD3
through their own apps, potentially, said Iris.tv CEO Field Garthwaite,
in part because there are fewer distractions there than on social media
platforms.
If users do fast-forward past one clip to see another using Iris.tv,
the next recommended clip will be a video from the same content
company that is tailored around their interests.
Investors in Iris.tvs funding round included Sierra Wasatch, BDMI,
Progress Ventures and individual backers including Machinima
founder Allen DeBevoise, Lions Gate CFO James Barge as well as
executives from Nielsen and AEG.
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