Earlier this week I posted on 10 local startups I'll be keeping an especially close eye on as we strut into 2015.
Already, one of them, Boston's Jana, has given me something new to report on—$12.5 million in new equity funding.
Though there hasn't been an official announcement from the company, a filing with the SEC reveals that the first investment in the new round was gathered just a few weeks ago, on Dec. 17. (The filing is also embedded below.)
"Related persons" connected to the funding round listed on the filing are the company's co-founders—Nathan Eagle and Benjamin Olding—as well as two notable investors, Spark Capital co-founder/partner Todd Dagres and Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Lévy, who holds a board seat at Jana (a rare move for the prominent French businessman).
In mid-December, our tech reporter Rebecca Strong took a look at the strong year that Jana had in 2014:
Since Boston startup Jana released its targeted mobile advertising offering Marketplace in March, the Back Bay based startup has seen a spike in interest around the service—which lets emerging-market consumers to connect with global brands using their mobile phones. Marketers can buy app install ads or short video ads and send them to mobile users across the world - who, if they opt in, then get a payment to cover the cost of the data required to view the content.
And:
Through Jana’s integrations with the billing systems of about 237 mobile operators in 102 countries, the company can redirect a portion of the billions of dollars spent on traditional advertising into the bank accounts of the consumers that brands are most eager to reach. And the reach is pretty impressive—roughly 3.48 billion mobile phones and counting. Meanwhile, brands are able to better understand, attract and retain new customers while building relationships with them via mobile.
Oh, and to put things in perspective, among the portfolio of brands using Jana’s tool are Google, Unilever, Microsoft, CNN, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé and General Mills.
Jana, which was founded in 2009, has now raised $37.5 million in funding, including a $15 million round from Publicis, a French communication giant, in mid-2013. Along with Boston-based Spark Capital, other investors in the startup have included New Enterprise Associates partner Rohini Chakravarty, former AOL CEO Jon Miller and former Akamai CEO Paul Sagan.
Update: Co-founder/CEO Nathan Eagle said the new round of funding came from existing investors.
Rebecca Strong contributed to this report.
