Integral Ad Science, a company that evaluates the quality of ad placements, has raised $30 million in Series D funding.
The funding was first disclosed in a regulatory filing and has been confirmed by CEO Scott Knoll, who said the round was led by August Capital (with existing investors participating). August’s Eric Carlborg is joining the Integral board.
The company started out as AdSafe but took on its current name in 2012 as part of a rebranding effort away from ad verification (i.e., confirming that an ad ran on the intended site and reached the intended audience) and towards “media valuation” (helping advertisers find and buy high-quality impressions).
To do that, Integral offers a “TRAQ Score”, which incorporates things like brand safety, page content, and ad viewability into a single metric. Knoll also said that one of the company’s big advantages is the fact that it works with customers on both the “buy side” and the “sell side”, and that programmatic buying (where ads are bought in an automated, real-time fashion) is making up a growing part of the business.
He added that the company didn’t need to raise the funding (it last raised a $10 million Series C in 2012), but he said, “It’s always like a good time to raise, especially if you don’t have to.”
Knoll’s goals for 2014 include global growth and incorporating different types of advertising. Integral has been largely focused on display ads, and it recently added video. As Integral introduces more ad channels, Knoll said it will become more essential because its machine learning algorithms will improve, it can provide “a more holistic picture of what’s happening.”
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