Innovid, a New York-based provider of interactive pre-roll technology for publishers and marketers, has raised a new venture round of $4 million from T-Ventures, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom.
Funds will allow the company to expand its operations in the U.S., Europe and in Israel where it has its R&D operations. The new round brings total financing to $7 million.
Last week, we spoke with Innovid CEO Zvika Netter about the product and the company's business model.
He describes his company as a "rich media vendor for video." Its tools are used by publishers and advertisiers to provide interactivity to pre-roll ads – often enhancing exising television 15 or 30-second commercials for use online.
He says that this added interactivity allows publishers to increase advertising rates (CPM) by 10 to 20 percent. He says that the company has implemented over 100 campaigns for brands including Disney, Sony Pictures, BlackBerry, Microsoft XBox Live and several auto companies and is working closely with ad agencies including Publicis' MediaVest and Digitas, Havas' MediaContacts, and WPP's Mindshare, and Omnicom's OMD
He says that the company has won wide acceptance in the U.S. with integrations with NBC Universal Turner, Fox and Viacom properties.
The company works closely with ad networks including Tremor Media and with big online video sharing sites, notably Dailymotion. In August, we reported on the success of Innovid units on Dailymotion.
In a related development around interactive pre-rolls, we recently reported on efforts by the video ad network ScanScout around the emergence of its "super pre-rolls"
More on the news from TechCrunch.
Andy Plesser
Production Note: We shot this video at the Chelsea studios of Livestream.
