Marin Software, a company that helps advertisers manage large online ad campaigns, has raised $30 million in a new round of funding.
Founded in 2006, Marin initially offered tools to manage search advertising campaigns, but it has expanded into display, mobile, and social media, and the company now bills itself as “the world’s leading online advertising management platform.” Marin says it doubled its customer base in the last year and now works with more than 1,500 advertisers and advertising agencies, who use the company’s services to manage $3.5 billion in annualized ad spending.
The new round was led by Asian investment firm Temasek, with funding from SAP Ventures (which, like Temasek, is a new investor in Marin), Benchmark Capital, Crosslink Capital, DAG Ventures, and Triangle Peak Partners. Founder and CEO Chris Lien said the money will be spent on building the sales and customer support teams, and on product development. He also said this will probably be Marin’s last round of private funding (it has raised a total of $80 million): “At some point in the future, Marin expects to be a public company.”
When asked what 2012 will hold for the advertising industry at large, Lien suggested that the shifts underway in 2011 (and before) will continue.
“In 2012, we expect to see ongoing migration of advertising dollars from offline media into online media as advertisers seek to have their marketing dollars follow audiences,” he said. “2012 will see continued growth of all forms of online media highlighted by the growth of search, display, social, and mobile.”
