Publicis Groupe has made a $15m (£9.9m) strategic investment in Boston’s Jana Mobile and is rolling out the value exhange ad platform across all of its agencies.

Jana Mobile is integrated with 237 operators in 102 countries and gives away free airtime in exchange for a variety of customer actions, including app downloads, ad engagement and purchases. It has access to consumers in key growth countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia and Nigeria, as well as a consumer-facing opt-in database which is growing by 1m people every month. 

Maurice Lévy, Publicis CEO, has given the model a personal endorsement as the next big thing in the communication industry and will join Jana’s board of directors. He added: “With its platform, Jana is changing the face of advertising by enabling us to invest in targeted, mobile-based campaigns that put advertising dollars directly into the pockets of the next billion consumers our clients are most eager to reach. As a result, brands become more valuable to people, and people become more economically empowered.”

Rishad Tobaccowala, chief strategy and innovation officer of Publicis-owned digital transition company VivaKi, will become an advisor to the company and manage the introduction of Jana Mobile across all Publicis Groupe agencies.

Publicis owns a number of mobile marketing companies, including Monterosa and Phone Valley, but this is its first investment in a startup mobile technology platform. Jana Mobile has raised a total of $25m to date.