JiWire has raised $20 million in Series C funding as the company expands it location-based mobile media across both apps and public wi-fi.
The funding round was led by Trident Capital based in Palo Alto, California. Existing investors Comcast Interactive Capital, DFJ Frontier, Norwest Venture Partners and Panorama Capital also participated in the financing. With the current funding, total capital raised to date is $45 million.
JiWire recently announced its international expansion into the UK, partnering with BT to extend its media channel to more than 4,000 locations.
As part of its investment, Trident Capital’s John Moragne will join the JiWire board. John co-founded Trident Capital and was recently named to Forbes’ Midas list of the 100 most powerful VCs. He brings a wealth of expertise in location and advertising through his involvement in companies such as MapQuest, Homeaway and Turn.
“We have focused intently on location as an important tool in delivering relevant and targeted media to mobile users,” said John Moragne, co-founder of Trident Capital. “We’re convinced JiWire has the technology, ad products, partnerships and momentum to be a critical player in the location advertising space for a long time to come.”
The new capital will be used to aggressively extend JiWire’s position in location-based advertising. The areas of growth include broadening its investment in new ad technology and products, pursuing additional M&A opportunities, such as its recent acquisition of NearbyNow, and further expanding internationally, having already entered the UK market last year.
“We’re delighted that Trident Capital has heartily endorsed our leadership position and momentum in location based media,” said David Courtney, JiWire’s chief executive officer. “We are in a period of phenomenal growth, leveraging location to transform the advertising market. We have our sights set on enhancing our proprietary data technology, expanding our unique and extensive distribution network and providing revolutionary ad products for our growing client base of leading advertisers to locationize their brands.”
www.jiwire.com