MoPub, the mobile advertising startup founded by former AdMob and Google employees, is today announcing the launch of MoPub Marketplace.

The MoPub Marketplace is billed as the first self-service, real-time bidding platform for mobile advertising. The company says it aims to give publishers access to new sources of revenue through a competitive auction, while enabling them to retain control and transparency.

The Marketplace connects app publishers with ad buyers in a real-time market, through an open-source SDK. At launch, 650 publishers on MoPubs ad-serving platform will have access to the Marketplace. 

“Until today, publishers have had to operate their mobile ads through a black box: blindly trusting ad networks, without knowing which ads are effective and with no control over the type of ads consumers receive,” says Jim Payne, CEO and co-founder of MoPub. “This matters considerably to the top-tier publishers we are working with who are concerned with brand protection as well as ad performance.”

MoPub Marketplace is now open to the public and free for publishers. For more information, head to the MoPub Marketplace website.