OVP leads investment in Aggregate Knowledge |
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OVP leads investment in Aggregate Knowledge
At a technology event last month, I was giving Lucinda Stewart of OVP Venture Partners a hard time about the lack of deals the firm had completed in the Seattle area in recent months. After all, nearly every time I wrote about a new investment from the Kirkland firm, it tended to be a company based in California or Massachusetts.
Stewart assured me that the firm is as committed as ever to the Pacific Northwest. I have no doubt that's the case. But OVP is starting out the year with yet another investment in a California company, leading a $9 million round in San Mateo, Calif.-based online advertising upstart Aggregate Knowledge.
Aggregate Knowledge started out in the business of providing product recommendations to e-commerce Web sites -- much like the product recommendation engine that Amazon.com built in-house on its Web site.
But in recent months the company has been repositioning its technology for use in the online display advertising sector, and that's what apparently caught OVP's interest.
“Aggregate Knowledge fits in perfectly with OVP’s advertising analytics investment thesis, namely, that the big exits in the next 3-5 years will be from companies with the infrastructure to harness the power of ‘big data’ to derive actionable customer insights,” said Stewart, who is joining the company's board.
Last July, the company introduced its Audience Discovery Engine for Display Advertising -- creating a way for advertisers to optimize their campaigns by reaching targeted audiences. As part of that offering, the company's technology allows advertisers to more effectively track which ad campaigns are working or not working.
That appears to be an area where a number of other Seattle area companies are playing as well, including Mpire and its AdXpose technology (backed by Ignition Partners and others) and Audience Science (which scored $20 million from Mohr Davidow and others last fall). Seattle's Adometry also is playing in the space, as is (to a lesser extent) Madrona-backed AdReady.
Obviously, this is a competitive arena. But Aggregate Knowledge has some strong financial backing from some marquee firms.
The company has raised a total of $25.5 million, according to Crunchbase. Other investors in the company include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures and First Round Capital.
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