Real-time ad server Yieldbot raises $18M

Yieldbot, a provider of real-time consumer intent to digital marketers, raised an $18 million round of funding, the company announced on Friday. The new round was led by by SJF Ventures with participation from existing investors RRE Ventures, New Atlantic Ventures and Common Angels, with additional funding from City National Bank.

The company previously raised a $1.2 million seed round, a $4.2 million Series A and, most recently, another $5 million in Series A funding in July of 2013. This latest funding brings the total raised to roughly $28.5 million.

New York City-based Yieldbot captures and organizes real-time intent of users on websites. It then makes this information available to advertisers so that they can then go and match offers, as well as ads, at the exact moment consumers are most open to receiving relevant marketing.

It partially does this by allowing advertisers to keyword match their ads to the intent of the user in real-time. Basically, the company is able to find out what a user is attempting to find by tracking their behavior once they get to a Web site.

Basically, the service tracks the behavior of users on a website, so that publishers can better target them for ads. The company's ability to capture, organize and activate the real-time consumer intent of the click-stream has created what is calls "a new currency," when can then be bought and sold on a performance basis on Yieldbot’s “Intent Stream.” 

Founded in 2010, the company says that it is already sees over 2 billion page views every single month.

The new funding will be used for to both further develop the product, including its real-time data and ad matching technology, and for adding members of the company's U.S. sales force, as well as its lineup of technical and executive talent.

"This funding however isn’t about defining Yieldbot. Our focus is on our customers. It’s more accurate to say it’s about redefining what is possible with display advertising. It’s about new buyers into new inventory. It’s about new technology applied in new ways. It’s about new levels of performance for marketers and publishers," Jonathan Mendez, CEO at Yieldbot, wrote in a blog post on Friday.

"It’s about a new channel of real-time media that is created explicitly by consumers in a privacy friendly way. We are creating media value in the digital ad ecosystem at levels no one ever has before and in ways no one ever has before. That is why we raised money. It is value we will continue to invest in for marketers, publishers and consumers."