Interesting News out of HasOffers today which raised almost $10M in cash from investment companies, with Accel Partners being the main funding source. While investments and funding is a normal part of doing business, they had always been thought a very cash rich cash positive company. No huge scandal here folks, but it does give time to look at the changes in the industry and really see what is going on. Here are a few points that I found really interesting about the press release:
1) Of course, that they needed cash. Usually this is done because a company is not cash positive and needs to get through the hard time, or they are planning huge expansion in a competitive market.
2) More than likely, it’s the later, they are planning to make a huge push into the market. If you notice their press release, they are calling themselves a “Software as a service” company, instead of an “affiliate tracking company.” Cake Marketing was the first company to start using that term in our industry to really push their company into the tech industry. It’s a whole change of what they were doing before, which frankly was allowing anyone to open an affiliate cpa network easily.
3) They are heavily pushing their mobile tracking, app install tracking, and so on, as part of their press release. It’s clear that the money they need is to try to get a huge market share of that growing industry.
4) All those companies don’t have their own mobile system? I really thought OfferMobile, Tapit, Tapjoy etc had their own software. It’s interesting, because the main value of companies right now in the mobile space is their technology
5) Despite Peter Hamilton as the CEO, the twin Lucas Brothers are still running the show and have become angry cavemen as their newest promo photo shows.
Press release below, enjoy:
SEATTLE, May 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — HasOffers, the SAAS leader in mobile advertising attribution raises $9.4M in its first round of funding led by Accel Partners, with participation by Seattle investors Rob Glaser, founder of RealNetworks, and Chris DeVore of Founder’s Co-op. The bootstrapped startup with 79 employees will use the new investment to expand its engineering organization and accelerate development of its analytics and attribution software tools.
Founded in 2009 by twin brothers, Lucas and Lee Brown, HasOffers features two SAAS (software as a service) products:
— HasOffers.com provides white-labeled software for networks and agencies
to manage their performance advertising programs.Clients include:
Bucksense, Tapjoy, SponsorPay, Applift, PocketMedia, OfferMobi, Crobo,
Tapit
— MobileAppTracking.com (MAT) attributes installs, in-app engagement and
purchases back to ad partners (such as social networks, publishers, and
mobile ad networks).Clients include: SuperCell, HotelTonight, Spotify,
LivingSocial, Electronic Arts, Square, Yahoo! Integrations include:
Facebook, Tapjoy, InMobi, Millennial Media, AdColony, Drawbridge
“We really didn’t need to raise money based on our current cash flow and ability to keep growing, but this partnership with Accel changes the game for us, allowing us to increase our engineering efforts and quickly scale our internal processes to meet a massive need in mobile advertising. I really believe Accel is the perfect partner for engaging this mobile ad ecosystem,” said Peter Hamilton, CEO of HasOffers.
As part of the financing, Rich Wong, Partner at Accel Partners will join the board. Rich previously worked with and led investments in leading mobile companies such as Mopub, Admob, Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds, 3LM, and Mobilespaces. In addition, Accel Partners has also invested in leading global mobile companies such as Supercell, HotelTonight, Spotify, Kayak, Hailocab, Trulia, and others — many of whom are customers of the service.
“We’re seeing a market shift in online advertising from the CPM or display oriented world of the past to a more programmatic, performance based approach,” said Rich Wong, Partner at Accel Partners. “Mobile advertisers are igniting that progression by demanding real user engagement from their advertising partners, and MobileAppTracking provides them with an objective way to evaluate performance of these campaigns.”
MAT is integrated with over 150 major mobile ad networks and publishers to make it easier for mobile app developers to work with any partner they choose. As a third party, open platform, the company maintains an independent relationship with ad networks, RTBs, and agencies and presents marketers with truly unbiased reporting.
“Our roots in performance advertising lead us to believe that successful advertising campaigns are built on relationships. Whether advertisers are promoting mobile apps or web campaigns, they must find the right partners with the right users, and both parties should be held accountable to campaign performance,” said Lucas Brown, Co-Founder of HasOffers. “That is exactly why unbiased attribution is so important.”
In conjunction with the funding announcement, HasOffers released the new Cohort Analysis Report for MAT. This real-time report allows clients to select a segment of app installs and correlate the in-app purchases and engagement that came from those users over time, revealing the true life-time value and revenue per install generated by various advertising sources.
Mobile improvements to the HasOffers.com product provide new attribution technology and parameters for networks and agencies to engage with mobile advertisers. With major UI improvements and mobile oriented reporting, the product is well positioned to be the dominating measurement and reconciliation tool for performance driven marketers with campaigns across devices.
About HasOffers
HasOffers was founded in Seattle in 2009 by twin brothers, Lucas and Lee Brown. The bootstrapped startup now employs 79 employees and is the leader in attribution analytics, providing marketers with the tools they need to measure and manage their advertising relationships.
About Accel Partners
Founded in 1983, and managing over $9.6 billion in capital, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California, New York City, London, and Bangalore, as well as in China via its partnership with IDG-Accel.
Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful technology companies, many of which have defined their categories, including 99designs, Actuate, AdMob, Agile Software, Alfresco, Angry Birds (Rovio), Atlassian, BBN, Bonobos, Braintree, Brightcove, Cloudera, ComScore, Diapers.com (Quidsi), Dropbox, Etsy, Exclusively.in, Facebook, Flipkart, Fusion-IO, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Groupon, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, IronPlanet, JBoss, Kayak, Lookout, Macromedia, metroPCS, MoPub, Myntra, OPOWER, Polycom/PictureTel, Playfish, Portal Software, QlikTech, Rapt, Real Networks, Redback, Responsys, Riverbed, Spotify, Squarespace, SunRun, Trulia, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, Wonga, XenSource and Zimbra.
SOURCE HasOffers
/CONTACT: HasOffers, Peter Hamilton, CEO, press@hasoffers.com, o: 206-508-1318, Accel Partners, Rich Wong, Partner, rich@accel.com, o: 650-330-5428, Accel Partners, Stephanie Ichinose, Marketing Partner, sichinose@accel.com, o: 650-330-5436
