MaxPoint raises $8M local ad targeting

The company's granular targeting technology allows advertisers to target specific neighborhoods

Location-based businesses are big right now, but the next wave of startup success is going to come from those businesses that go further to make their location-based services more precise and localized. Mobile apps are quickly moving in this direction to allow smartphone owners to use their devices to navigate malls and locate items on their exact shelves, but how can online advertisers get in on the action? Meet MaxPoint Interactive: a local targeting company that works with online advertisers to locate potential customers on the neighborhood level to drive offline sales. The company got an $8 million boost of confidence Tuesday in a Series B round led by Madrona Venture Group, with help from Trinity Ventures. This brings the company's total funding to date to $11 million.

The company isn't taking local advertising lightly. Using its proprietary Digital Zip technology, it has broken the entire country down to 34,000 distinct neighborhoods, each containing roughly 3,400 households. Each neighborhood is then intensively analyzed and profiled using deep reaching data sets that include income range, age, family size, education level, ethnicity, purchasing behavior, brand preferences, and even health and fitness levels. The result is a unique demographic mapping of the entire United States at the local level so that advertisers can target consumers who are likely to buy their product and are capable of buying their product. 

The best part: MaxPoint doesn't rely on personally identifiable information, which is likely to make it a very appealing option for online advertisers now that Internet users have the ability to opt out of tracking. 

“Over the past year, MaxPoint has been instrumental in proving to brick-and-mortar companies, the key to an effective online advertising campaign is measuring how well it drives traffic into an actual physical location,” said Madrona partner Len Jordan in a prepared statement. “We are investors in MaxPoint because we truly believe the value in online advertising is in leveraging the neighborhood-level proximity of a qualified consumer base to a retail location. Such targeted advertising leads to the in-store purchase of the product featured in the ad served.”

The company is vague on how the funds will be used, but said in an email that it will be increasing its headcount.