SpotXChange take first $12m institutional funding from HIG Growth

., a global online video advertising network based Westminster, Colorado, has closed a $12m financing round from HIG Growth Partners.

This capital raise is the company’s first institutional round of financing. SpotXchange, which reached profitability at the beginning of 2010, has consistently been ranked as a comScore top five video ad network in the US and the number one video ad network in several countries outside of the US, including Canada and the UK. The proceeds from this funding round will be used to further develop SpotXchange’s video advertising network and to expand its international presence.

Exploding Video Ad Market

“The video ad network market is exploding and SpotXchange is prepared to build upon its success and lead the market globally” said John Kim, Managing Director of HIG Growth Partners. “SpotXchange’s rapid expansion to date is indicative of the tremendous value the company provides to publishers and advertisers. Its technology is one of the most comprehensive and robust we’ve seen in the video ad market and it has a burgeoning international presence. This investment will enable SpotXchange to continue its aggressive development and maintain its technological edge into the future.”

SpotXchange’s auction-based platform, combined with its proprietary viewership data and targeting technology, helps advertisers achieve the most efficient media spend for video campaigns. By leveraging the largest set of cross-platform data on video viewership in the world, SpotXchange places video ads in front of the specific audiences most likely to interact with and watch a given ad longer – all in real-time and on a per-impression basis.

Serving ads in this manner leads to a significant lift in the metrics that brands care about such as optimized targeting, reach and control – benefits that direct site and other network buys cannot match. SpotXchange publishers benefit from the company’s ability to maximize the value of their inventory by making every impression competitive among a large group of major brand advertisers, demand side platforms and ad networks that use SpotXchange’s real-time bidding API.

International Offices

“While we’ve achieved significant progress and profitability without institutional funding, this investment from HIG will enable us to aggressively invest for even more success” said Michael Shehan, founder and CEO of SpotXchange. “We plan to open several international offices in the next year and significantly add to our current media sales team. In addition to growth capital, HIG’s experience in the digital media world will provide us with strategic guidance during our continued expansion.”

John Kim and Nik Shah of HIG Growth Partners are to join SpotXchange’s Board of Directors.

HIG Growth Partners

HIG Growth Partners is the dedicated growth capital investment affiliate of HIG. Capital, a leading global private equity investment firm with over $8.5bn of capital under management. HIG Growth Partners seeks to make both majority and minority investments in strong, growth oriented businesses located throughout North America and Europe. The firm considers investments across all industries, but focuses on certain high-growth sectors where they have in-house expertise, such as technology, internet, media, healthcare, consumer products and technology-enabled financial and business services.

The HIG family of funds includes private equity, growth equity, venture capital, distressed debt, real estate and public equities. HIG has US offices in Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New York and San Francisco as well as European offices in London, Paris and Hamburg. For more information please visit or .