Thursday, October 7, 2010

Burstly Opens Up Mobile Ad Service

Los Angeles-based Burstly, the mobile advertising tools firm run by Evan Rifkin, said this week that it has opened up a new way for mobile application developers to sell their own advertising space. According to Burstly, its new Storefront product allows local businesses and other advertisers to directly buy mobile advertising from developers. The company said its Storefront offering is a turn-key way to enable advertisers to purchase aps directly from a developer's application, and which automated the creation of ad campaigns, billing, reporting, and other functions.

As part of the new mobile ad service, Burstly said it has partnered with mobile application developer Newtoy, which develops the Words With Friends application. Newtoy recently revealed it has had over 10 million downloads of its game. Burstly also said its new Storefront feature allows advertisers to use geo-targeting, supports both CPC and CPM pricing models, and supports both Apple iOS and Android phones.

Burstly is venture backed by Founder Collective, GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, and SoftBank Capital. Rifkin is the former founder of Tagworld, which he sold to MTVN in 2008. GRP's investment in Burstly was overseen by omnipresent technology investor Mark Suster, and Jim Andeleman was the lead on Rincon's investment in the company.

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