LoopMe Secures $500,000 Investment

Mobile advertising start-up LoopMe has secured $500,000 worth of ‘Super Angel’ funding, in a round led by Russell Buckley’s Ballpark Ventures investment vehicle. The money raised will fund LoopMe’s international sales and business development and continue product innovation for its mobile ad inbox solution. Other investors included John Taysom, founder of Reuters Venture Capital which had 16 IPO exits, including Yahoo; Torben Maajaard, founder of Ciklum and AdQuota; and Peter Barry, founder of Vodafone Ventures in Silicon Valley.

LoopMe launched in August last year with the aim of helping app developers drive app downloads. When a user clicks on the LoopMe button deployed within an app or a mobile site, they open an ‘inbox’ containing a range of apps to download or offers to take up that have been socially rated and endorsed by the wider community. They can interact with several advertisers in one session, but are not migrated away from the app itself. They can return to the app or site they were using or browsing at any time simply by hitting the ‘Back’ button. 

Advertising inventory is sold on a cost-per click or cost-per install/download/acquisition basis. LoopMe currently has over 100 advertisers, including Fifa, Fitness First, Honda and Marks & Spencer, and operates in 30 markets.

The people behind LoopMe are mobile ad industry veterans, Stephen Upstone (CEO) and Marco Van De Bergh (CTO), who worked together at Ad Infuse and Velti, after Velti bought AdInfuse.

“Investors immediately saw the value of LoopMe, and we had a number of different partners interested,” said Upstone. “We chose quality of industry experience at the highest level globally, and we are thrilled to have secured such high quality investors, with experience of building the world’s largest mobile and online ad businesses.”

Ballpark Ventures’ founder Buckley added: “Ballpark sees exponential growth ahead in mobile advertising, and LoopMe has come up with something genuinely unique and valuable. Its LoopMe concept gives publishers great results, without changing existing relationships, while advertisers get better engagement and results.”

You can see LoopMe in action on the Developer Wiki at www.loopme.biz where you can download example ads with LoopMe installed for iOs, Android, and Unity, which is an important platform for game development.

 

We conducted a podcast interview with LoopMe CEO Stephen Upstone – listen to it here