Friday, August 22, 2008

Battery backs ‘anti-ad’ network Adisn

By Mass High Tech Staff

Battery Ventures has led a $1 million Series A round of funding in a California-based online advertising network operator, according to a published report.

Battery, which operates an office in Waltham, invested in Adisn Inc., a Long Beach, Calif., company that reports using relationship data from the social web to enhance targeting, website PE Hub reported.

Adisn, which operates offices in Long Beach, New York, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, bills itself as an anti-advertising network.

The company has developed technology that aggregates web conversations, web profiles and online blogs to create relationships between seemingly unrelated topics. It then uses the relationships to improve online targeting for web publishers and advertisers, according to the Adisn website.

The company develops CrowdControl, a tool intended for advertisers to take advantage of the participation and user-generated content of online social networks. Adisn also is the force behind the short-lived geek favorite website Muxtape, a site at which users were able to combine tracks from all over the web into a digital “mixtape.” The site is now shut down due to copyright disputes with the Recording Industry Association of America.

Battery Ventures, founded in 1983, operates offices in Waltham, Silicon Valley and Israel. In 2007, the firm closed its eighth fund, which reached $750 million. The fund increased the firm’s total committed capital to $2.9 billion.

Earlier this week, Battery participated in a $13 million Series B round of financing for New York online advertising platform Lotame, according to Lotame officials. It was a second investment in the company for Battery Ventures, with California-based Emergence Capital Partners and previous investor Milford, N.H.-based Hillcrest Management LLC.