SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- April 5, 2016 -- Virool, the fastest growing video distribution platform for marketers, today announced a new round of strategic funding to further accelerate its presence in the global advertising market. The company has raised a Series A round of $12 million in new funding from Menlo Ventures, Yahoo! Japan, Flint Capital and 500 Startups. The investment builds on a $6.62 million seed round from VC firms and angel investors including FundersClub, Troy Carter and Farzad (Zod) Nazem.
s digital advertising embraces a rapid shift to programmatic video, Virool has established itself as a key partner that supports all sides of the media equation. Launched in late 2012 out of Y Combinator, Virool now powers more than 75,000 video campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands and their agencies. In March 2015, Virool introduced its InLine unit, an outstream ad unit that has served client video ads across more than 2,000 publishing properties on desktop and mobile web.
“2016 is already proving to be a very big year for Virool,” said Alex Debelov, CEO of Virool. “Our technology continues to push the limits of what’s possible for digital video as the market shifts advertising dollars from TV to digital in an emerging cross-screen world. With the support of Menlo Ventures, Flint Capital and 500 Startups, the additional funding will accelerate our North America, Latin America and Europe plans, and extend Virool into APAC with the strategic sense of Yahoo! Japan.”
“Alex has the hustle to take Virool’s growth to the next level,” said Dave McClure, Founding Partner of 500 Startups. “It makes perfect sense to invest in Virool; video is the future of the internet. Additionally, with 500’s presence in over 20 countries they are able to access our extremely diverse and global ecosystem, aiding in accelerated growth.”
Artem Burachenok, Founding Partner at Flint Capital said, “At Flint, the companies that capture our attention are the ones that tackle arduous challenges, and clearly demonstrate the potential to make a huge impact on businesses, as well as, people. Virool is a prime example of one such company because it is shifting an industry from ‘one-way’ mediums like television to interactive, digital environments. Online video advertising is a massive market, with at least 10x growth potential in terms of effectiveness, and Virool is very well positioned to take the lead in making it happen.”
“Virool has emerged as a clear leader in the native video advertising space, and we’ve been behind Alex since day one,” said John Jarve, Managing Director of Menlo Ventures. “At Menlo Ventures, we invest in startups and founders that set themselves apart with ambitions to change the world. Virool, with its InLine unit, has become a preferred way for publishers to monetize their properties on the web and the company’s incredible growth over the last three years serves as a testament to the team’s ability to deliver the right product for their customers.”
Menlo Ventures has led venture capital investments in well-known, successful companies such as Uber, Periscope, Warby Parker, Credit Sesame, Betterment, and ad-tech companies including DataXu, Flurry (acquired by Yahoo) and YuMe.
