More Money for Your Data: Targeting Marketplace eXelate Raises $15 Million

You can have an honest debate about the intersection of online privacy and advertising. And the WSJ’s “What They Know” package is a good place to have that discussion.

But for a certain slice of the advertising technology world, there’s no debate: They believe advertisers and publishers are going to consume increasing amounts of personal data to make advertising more targeted and more effective. End of story.

Add the investors betting on eXelate into that group. Carmel Ventures and Menlo Ventures are putting $15 million into the company, which brags that it runs the “the first and largest open marketplace for audience targeting data.” The Israeli company had previously raised $4 million.

Data marketplaces like eXelate, Blue Kai and Magnetic are supposed to help advertisers and publishers fine-tune their products; they work hand-in-hand with display advertising exchanges like Google’s (GOOG) AdX.

But while some parts of the ad technology ecosystem appear threatening to the status quo, eXelate has made a point of reaching out the establishment: The company recently added New York Times (NYT) digital boss Martin Nisenholtz and Interpublic Group (IPG) venture head Matt Freeman to its board of directors.