Geo-targeted ad network transforming maps into revenue generating properties

Lat49, a geo-contextual advertising network, has raised C$1.5 million in Series A financing led by PenderFund Capital Management, with participation from existing investors including Discovery Capital.

The Vancouver-based company serves both advertisers and publishers alike.  

For advertisers, lat49 basically lets them choose which region of the map they’d like to place their ad on (New York, San Francisco, etc), and then gives them the option of ad size, map zoom in level, and interactivity options.

On the publisher's end, if they are running a map-based site, lat49 offers an API, which it says works with all of the major map providers (Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth to name a few.)  Publishers are given the option of which ads and sizes they’d like to run on their maps and from there, share revenue with lat49.  The payment plan doesn’t seem all that great though – lat49 pays 30 days after the end of each calendar month if earned balance is greater than $100.  Some featured publishers include Topix, SFGate, Trails.com and Hotpads.

“Contextual advertising - advertising that is driven by location awareness, is the cornerstone of most web and almost all mobile consumer interactions,” believes John McEwen, CEO of Discovery Capital.

If lat49 can really build and span out this technology, perhaps jump into mobile and take advantage of all the new GPS enabled devices out there, I’d say the company has a bright future ahead of it.