Adknowledge raises funds to the tune of $200M

The ad marketplace raises debt financing from BofA and equity from JMI

Advertiser marketplace Adknowledge announced Wednesday morning that it has raised a whopping $200 million in debt and equity financing in a round led by JMI Equity and Bank of America.  Adknowledge, which bills itself as the fourth largest ad marketplace (after Google, Bing, and Facebook), says that it will use the funds to power future acquisitions and expand its network so that advertisers can access inventory from segments such as video, mobile, content sites, and display.

The company claims to have doubled its revenue in 2010 through strategic acquisitions and organic growth so that it ended the year with $300 million in revenue and more than 330 employees.  

Adknowledge’s marketplace, bidsystem.com, allows advertisers to syndicate their ads in non-search distribution on a cost-per-click and cost-per-action basis to monetize Web traffic in more fragmented, hard-to-reach channels, such as email, casual gaming, display, social networks, mobile, and domain inventory.  Some 10,000 advertisers use the bidsystem.com marketplace, according to the company.

"It's easy to advertise with Google, Bing and Facebook, but much tougher to reach the rest of the Internet because it's so fragmented," said Adknowledge CEO Scott Lynn in the company’s announcement. "We believe there are currently too many intermediary companies that make it very confusing and inefficient for advertisers to buy and execute their advertising campaigns across the tail. With this new investment, we will continue to further our goal of creating a 'must buy' marketplace for online advertisers.”

Founded in 2004, Adknowledge previously raised a Series A round to the tune of $48 million in 2006, so the latest round of capital brings the company’s total financing to $248 million.  JMI Equity led the equity financing while Bank of America led the debt financing.

JMI Equity general partner Brad Woloson is joining Adnowledge’s board of directors.

"Adknowledge has experienced tremendous growth since its founding, and we believe advertisers will continue to utilize the company's sophisticated technology platform to streamline their marketing efforts," said Woloson in a prepared statement. "We are excited to have the opportunity to work closely with Scott and the Adknowledge team and lend our expertise in online advertising to help them capitalize on their many growth opportunities."