Vserv, a provider of Mobile In-App Advertising in India,
announced it has closed $3 million in Series A funding by IDG Ventures India.
Vserv is a mobile advertising network focused on emerging
markets having delivered In-App and Wap advertising in over 200 countries for
leading Fortune 500 brands and digital media companies. It is a pioneer in Full
Screen In-App advertising for J2ME Apps out of India; the largest market
globally for J2ME Apps. The company also works with WAP publishers and is
currently extending its advertising solutions into Android Apps.
IDG Ventures India is a venture capital fund investing in
technology-related product and services companies in India. The
investment represents the first VC investment in mobile advertising in India
since 2008 and is the first institutional investment into Vserv. As part of the
investment, Manik Arora and Karan Mohla from IDG Ventures will be joining
Vserv’s Board of Directors.
With the rollout of 3G in India, consumption of mobile
data-services and mobile apps is expected to increase significantly. The mobile
phone has transformed into an effective channel to receive advertisements and
is increasingly becoming an important engagement tool for brands. Globally, the
worldwide mobile advertising revenue is expected to exceed $3 billion in 2011
with Asia-Pacific being half the market.
While the mobile advertising industry is still relatively
young, it is experiencing rapid growth driven by Mobile Internet growth and Mobile
Apps growth. Within this, emerging markets are critical given their large
and growing mobile phone installed bases – India alone has over 40 million
Mobile Internet users and the largest market for J2ME App downloads. The global
In-App advertising market will grow from US$900 million this year to roughly $5
Billion in 2015 according to IDC.
Having researched this dynamic market for the last year,
we found Vserv taking a leadership role from India and starting to expand to
emerging markets abroad. We look forward to partnering with co-founders
Dippak Khurana and Ashay Padwal to help them achieve their vision for Vserv,”
said Manik Arora, founder and managing director, IDG Ventures India.
Vserv is the first company globally to have developed a
unique App Ad-Wrapper solution for J2ME Apps and is now extending this solution
to Android Apps. The App Ad-Wrapper enables mobile app developers to monetize
their apps with minimal effort and provides advertisers a unique medium to
target the rapidly growing mobile audience.
With the funds we plan to expand our sales and
engineering teams to drive sales growth in India and internationally as well as
further develop our monetization solutions for the global App developer
community. Our unique App Ad-Wrapper technology for J2ME Apps has been
well received by the global developer community as it can support over 500
phone models and allows both new and existing Apps to be Ad-Wrapped and
monetized. With this funding, we will extend our offerings to Android
Apps, which are increasingly becoming important in emerging markets,” said
Dippak Khurana, founder and CEO, Vserv.
By TelecomLead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
