Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

See, the Facebook Exchange Is a Big Deal — For the Ad Tech Guys

Here’s more evidence that Facebook’s new ad targeting program could be a big deal — at least for the ad tech companies working with Facebook.

Ad tech start-up Triggit has raised a $7.4 million round, and CEO Zach Coelius says it’s a direct result of his company’s work on the Facebook Exchange.

That’s the program that lets advertisers “retarget” Facebook users using their Web-surfing history, a practice that’s increasingly common on all Internet sites.

Coelius has been raving about the Exchange since it launched, and now he can make that argument a bit more explicit. He says that his company, which acts as a middleman between Facebook and “real time” ad buyers, has seen revenue increase 300 percent since it started working on the Exchange this summer, and that more than 90 percent of that growth comes from Facebook.

Next year, he says, he expects to see similar numbers. “The performance is just unbelievable.”

Triggit has now raised more than $13 million; Coelius says he’ll use the new funds to expand in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

This is an inside round, led by previous investors Spark Capital and the Foundry Group. Since the new conventional wisdom on ad tech is that it’s an overfunded category that’s overdue for consolidation, the lack of new money in the company may send up warning flags.

But Coelius insists it was his choice not to bring in new investors; he says the round represents a “very significant step in terms of valuation.”

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