Mark Cuban learned about haystagg— a Boston startup that's developed targeting technology for advertisers to expand the reach of their campaigns — through other angel investors he had ties with. Soon, fellow “Shark Tank” investor Barbara Corcoran was involved, and now the two have opted—away from the cameras of the ABC show—to make an investment into the startup. Haystagg on Friday announced raising a $600,000 investment from Cuban, Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners and Kima Ventures.
"Mark and Barbara both pay attention to the deals one another are taking part in, especially in this space, leading Barbara to approach haystagg shortly thereafter," a haystagg spokeswoman said.
The startup has now raised $1.1 million since its founding in May 2013. Previously, haystagg had raised $500,000 from Boston-area angels including Dyn CMO Kyle York.
Haystagg’s technology is used to evaluate ad placements in real time, to help ensure views of the ads meet the ideal combination of audience, content, time, geography and device. And because it doesn't rely on data from cookies, haystagg purports to reveal new and untapped audiences. Haystagg has nine employees, with five of them in Boston, who are currently working out of co-working spaces around the city. The startup told us, however, that there are plans to both grow out the team and move into a Boston office of its own.
“haystagg has fantastic resonance in the market – we beat our 2014 revenue targets and are on track to do the same in 2015,” said president Michael Ouellette in a news release. “Our investors help us to create more products that advertisers will love. We highly appreciate that their networks open additional doors in the advertiser and investment community.”
Aside from appearing as a shark on ABC’s hit show, Cuban, a billionaire who owns the Dallas Mavericks, has invested in numerous startups, among them Boston-area companies HourlyNerd, Philo and Apptopia.
