BrightRoll raises $10 million

Surpasses Hulu in monthly unique visitors across its ad network

San Francisco-based, BrightRoll made some pretty major announcements on Wednesday.  The video ad network said it raised $10 million in its third round of funding.  Scale Venture partners led the round and was joined by True Ventures, Adams Street Capital and KPG Ventures.  The company has now raised a total of $16 million since being founded in 2006.

Along with the funding news, BrightRoll announced its video ad network has surpassed Hulu's monthly unique visitors.  BrightRoll's ad network has grown to 54.6 million unique visitors per month in the US, surpassing the 31.9 million unique visitors reached by Hulu's network and 20.8 million uniques reached by Hulu.com, according to Comcast.  One key difference between both networks reach is that BrightRoll only serves video ads while Hulu serves video content and ads.  BrightRoll argues due to this fact, "it will become more and more clear that the most efficient way to reach targeted video audiences at scale are through video advertising networks."

The startup's massive reach has to do with its partnerships.  BrightRoll said it is working with the Web's top 100 video publishers.  Some of those include Adap.tv, Auditude, FreeWheel, along with video players companies including Brightcover and thePlatform.  

At the same time, BrightRoll offers unique options for advertisers such as a performance pricing program which gives advertisers engagement and performance-based ad options instead of standard price-per-impression metrics.  

Scale Venture Partners is betting its $10 million investment will do well as the online video ad market continues to grow to billions over the next few years, disrupting the $70 billion television ad market.  "Given its momentum, even during the difficult 2009 economy, BrightRoll is well-positioned to extend its lead in this market," said Rob Theis, managing director at Scale.  

Some of BrightRoll's major clients include, Microsoft, ABC, Shell, Audi, Sony, WB, and Walmart, just to name a few.  The startup, which said it has been profitable for the past 12 months, said it will use this round of financing to expand its technology platform, and expand worldwide advertiser and publisher operations.