Plista raises millions for B2B marketing

With launch of OnSite Recommendations, Plista enlisting user support for site publishers

Plista, provider of enhanced marketing and advertising models based on personalization, today announced the closing of a second round of funding. Though the exact number was not disclosed, PR-inside calls it a “7-digit amount.”

Made possible by High-Tech Gründerfonds and DuMont Venture, who joined return backers like the Draper Investment Company and private investors, this latest fundraiser finalizes a necessary injection of capital for the young Berlin-based startup.

Simultaneous with this financing announcement, Plista also rolled out the first of its main products, called OnSite Recommendations.

OnSite Recommendations empowers Web site publishers to install tools that generate customized content, specifically tailored to the end user on the site. The idea is that such personalization of Web content will dramatically increase the time a user spends on a site, the likelihood that he or she would return, and in turn, the revenue that a site would receive.

Additionally, Plista constantly monitors user behaviors in response to the implementation of these tools, providing its clients with recommendations for tweaking their content to better suit their users.

Already, Plista has signed up Kölner Stadt Anzeiger of DuMont publishing house and the download portal pro.de for the product and, Plista says, they have already seen increased page views, downloads, and revenues.

Simon Schneider, Investment Director at High-Tech Gründerfonds, foresees personalization becoming a necessary tool in the future of marketing, stating that he and his fellow investors “expect an ever-increasing demand for intelligent solutions in the field of personalization and targeting on the Internet of the future. Therefore, we see a great potential for both the domestic market and the internationalization of the service.”

The Web 2.0 explosion gave users the ability to alter the content on the Web in a free and easy way, but publishers have been slow to capitalize on technology that targets users based on their content and interests. Besides ads, this is still a maturing technology as yet untapped. Plista is looking to change that.