NebuAd funding reaches $30 million

NebuAd, a company that makes behavioral targeting software that allows online publishers and ISPs to show relevant ads, has just received an additional $5.5 million in funding from Menlo Ventures and Sierra Ventures, bringing total funding to $30M. Better targeted advertising (location and context based) could provide a way for service providers to earn money delivering free or cheap citywide Wi-Fi service. NebuAd (www.nebuad.com), a company that makes behavioral targeting software that allows online publishers and ISPs to show relevant ads to users browsing web pages, has just received an additional $5.5M, bringing total funding to $30M. The investors are Menlo Ventures and Sierra Ventures. Better targeted advertising (location and context based) could provide a way for service providers to earn money delivering free or cheap citywide Wi-Fi service.

NebuAd was one of the companies that participated in the Muniwireless Demo Salon at our New England conference last June where it described itself as follows:

“NebuAd’s ad-insertion platform enables monetization of broadband wireless networks by anonymously profiling online web-surfing behaviors based on ads clicked, URLs visited, and search text in a way that avoids use of any personally identifiable information. NebuAd provides its appliance at no charge and offers a fully outsourced advertising business operation with a revenue share of $3-$5 monthly per subscriber to the WISP.”

So NebuAd observes and analyzes what you are doing online to figure out your interests and then matches it with the most relevant ads, served at the right time, they claim.

Indeed, companies offering software that allows advertisers to target ads better have been getting funding (or getting acquired) recently. We reported last week that LastMile raised over £4 million. Tacoda, a behavioral targeting firm, was acquired in July 2007 by AOL.