OpenX Raises $22.5 Million in Round Led by Samsung Venture Unit

OpenX Software said it had raised $22.5 million in a Series E funding round, with Samsung Venture Investment Corporation as lead investor.

All told, the Los Angeles-based online advertising technology company has raised $70 million. Along with Samsung, existing investors — Accel Partners, Index
Ventures, SAP Ventures, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment, Inc. and Presidio Ventures — were also part of the new round.

“We have been building the company to continue to grow,” said OpenX CEO Tim Cadogan, who noted that the company had doubled its size and revenue in the last year. The company now has 260 employees.

He said that OpenX had a partnership with Samsung that it evolved into a financial arrangement to bring the Korean electronics giant “a little closer to the company.”

Cadogan said the new funding would be used for acquisitions and other expansion, especially into mobile, as it competes with rivals such as search giant Google.

“We are building a truly viable revenue program that goes across screens,” he said, pointing to two recent strategic acquisitions — LiftDNA and JumpTime.

Samsung’s Brannon Lacey said the company invested in OpenX because it was pioneering in the space. “As an investor, it is a fragmented market and there will be consolidation,” he said. “And OpenX is best positioned for that.”

OpenX said that it had grown its transactions from one trillion to four trillion from 2011 to 2012.