Rocket Fuel charges up with $6.6M

The digital advertising solution provider gets support from Northgate Capital

 Rocket Fuel, the company that brings “rocket science to digital advertising,” announced Friday that it has secured $6.6 million in a Series C round led by Northgate Capital, with participation from previous investors Mohr Davidow Ventures, Labrador Capital Fund, Nokia Growth Partners, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The new funds bring Rocket Fuel’s total valuation to $160 million as the company expects to bring in revenues to the tune of $50 million this year.

Founded by former executives from NASA (I’m sure the “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist” jokes run rampant), Yahoo, and DoubleClick, the company was launched in 2009 to help marketers more effectively target consumers and deliver relevant ads for their brands through Rocket Fuel’s proprietary “response prediction” and targeting technology. The company’s Progressive Optimization technology, which is used in all of its digital advertising solutions, combines more than 8,500 attributes, including behavioral, contextual, and demographic targeting, into a single profile. The technology operates on a real-time bidding system that processes 1.5 billion impressions each day and refreshes every fifteen minutes according to each individual advertiser’s goals.

The company has grown rapidly since launching in 2009, now employing more than 90 people across six offices in the U.S. Rocket Fuel works with more than 300 Blue Chip companies and brands, including Virgin Mobile, Blackberry, Sprint, BMW, Bing, Coca Cola, The New York Times, ABC, and more.

“As we prepare for continued expansion, our latest funding round represents a resounding validation of Rocket Fuel’s innovation and leadership in the science of digital advertising, as well as the long term potential of our company,” said Rocket Fuel CEO George John, in a statement. “With this investment, we enter into an important new phase of development and expansion as we weave together intelligent solutions that help marketers make digital advertising work better across display, video, mobile and social media inventory.”

The new funds will be used to bolster product development, business development, and the expansion of sales and marketing.