Komli Media raises $39M from Norwest Venture Partners, Nexus, Helion & others

Mumbai-based online ad network and audience measurement provider Komli Media India Pvt Ltd has raised $39 million, led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Western Technology Investment.

This is the company's fourth and largest financing till date.  And, till now the company has raised $62 million.

The fund will be used to enhance the company's core media technology platforms and products, hiring more talents and expand its presence across the Asia-Pacific market. Other than this, it will also be used to for the recently done acquisition of Admax Network, a South-east Asian digital media network

"This financing will allow us to materially scale our platform and operations by investing in our real-time bidding (RTB), data, analytics and retargeting solutions to improve ROI for advertisers and yield for publishers," said Prashant Mehta, CEO of Komli Media.

Komli is also looking at hiring 100 more people from technology and engineering background to develop new software and hardware to offer more services.

"Our industry-leading solutions will allow us to deepen our presence and engagement with customers and publisher partners across APAC," he added.

Komli Media is looking at going deep into the existing geographies and connect with more brands, advertisers, ad networks and agencies.

Mehta said there isn't any specific acquisition plan. Mehta said, "We acquired Admax Network a few months back. We are still on the process of integration with it."

But if some opportunities come, Komli might look at acquiring some tech firms, which will complement Komli's function.  "For that we may go for fresh funds if required," said Mehta.

He also informed, right now Komli is concentrating on scaling up its business. "If opportunity comes up to raise an IPO in 1-2 years, we just might do it."

Niren Shah, managing director of Norwest Venture Partners, said, "With early investments in superior talent and its innovative platforms, the company has completely transformed its business. Today, it is well positioned to capture a much larger share of digital media within some of the fastest growing markets in the world."

In January 2011, the online ad network raised $15 million, led by Norwest Venture Partners. Existing investors Helion Venture Partners and Nexus Venture Partners also participated in that round. The company had also raised $6 million in July 2010 and $2 million in January 2008.

As claimed by the company, it has over 5,000 leading publishers, including exclusive partnerships with Facebook and MSN, in key markets. It reaches over 270 million users monthly and actively services more than 1,000 advertisers across the region. Komli Media responds to over 38 billion monthly impressions, up from 10 billion 12 months ago.