PaeDae is a mobile rewards and advertising company that offers a variety of advertising options specifically focused on the gaming industry. They launched a rewards network about a year ago, which allowed game publishers to give their players both physical and virtual rewards in the game for reaching certain milestones. The brands, including companies like 7-Eleven, Hershey’s, State Farm and Time Warner Cable, can market to the gamers by providing real life products.
PaeDae said that they raised $11.6 Million in new funding, which came as a mix of debt and equity. Rob Emrich, the founder and CEO, would not comment on how much of the money was debt and how much was equity. There were more than 20 investors including Silicon Valley Bank, Grind Games, 3G Capital and others.
Emrich commented that, “One of the reasons that we decided to go with this approach is that our sales are very strong, our revenue is very strong, we’ve fielded multiple acquisition offers. We wanted to preserve our opportunities and whatever options were available to us. Debt allowed us to do that in a way that equity couldn’t.” Essentially, he is saying that they wanted to raise the capital while still holding on to the option of being bought out at a later date.
At least a portion fo the money raised will be used to help the company with their expansion into the area they are calling ‘user-centric advertising’ which is intended to bring the mobile rewards to other kinds of advertising. He wants to help brands to extend the interaction with potential customers beyond just the brief time they are viewing their advertisement. He says, “When a user decides to interact with our ads we want to make sure we can continue that relationship beyond that one momentary offering.”
Whatever the future holds for Paedae, it is looking bright. They may eventually get bought out, but for now at least, it seems they will continue their innovative marketing approach for the foreseeable future.
