San Francisco-based Adauction.com raised $15 million in a
round of funding from investors led by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners,
Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc. and Fayez Sarofim & Co.
Previous investors Convergence Partners, Geneva Partners, VIVENTURES
Partners, and New Millennium Partners also contributed.
The $15 million brings the company’s total capital raised to date to more
than $30 million in debt and equity financing.
Adauction.com, which provides a business-to-business e-commerce service for
buying and selling ads, said it intends to use the financing to grow in four
areas: rollout of new auction services in traditional media — including
broadcast, outdoor and cable — as well as opening several regional offices,
expanding marketing/sales programs and building its sales team.
“Adauction.com’s business model touches four of the hottest trends on the
Internet: business-to-business e-commerce, dynamic pricing, third party
infomediaries and media sales,” said Michael Castleman, vice president,
Lehman Brothers. “We are excited to partner with Adauction.com because they
are leveraging these four key trends to seize
the market opportunity and change the way media is bought and sold.”
Adauction.com has traditionally auctioned online ad space and recently
launched a print media auction, featuring ad avails in several national
consumer publications. The company plans to introduce the first Internet
auction for broadcast and outdoor media in the third quarter of this year.