UK-based advertising technology developer Blis raised $25m yesterday in a series B round that included Unilever Ventures, consumer goods manufacturer Unilever’s strategic investment arm.
The round also featured investment firm Endeit Capital and private equity firm Beringea, while Silicon Valley Bank has provided Blis with a credit facility of undisclosed size.
Blis has built a platform that supplies location data and behavioural insights to businesses to help them more effectively target their content. The funding will help Blis, which operates in more than 50 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, expand into new markets including the US.
Greg Isbister, founder and chief executive of Blis, told Global Corporate Venturing: “Unilever Ventures is the venture arm of Unilever which, being one of the largest advertisers in the world, was part of the round as a strategic investment in our business.
“The investment for us highlights the importance of location for advertisers like Unilever today, and in the future, using location data. Unilever are a customer of ours and we would expect that to continue.”
Ian Lane, principal at Unilever Ventures, will join the Blis board of directors in conjunction with the round, together with Martijn Hamann of Endeit Capital and Mark Donnelly, of Beringea.
Beringea provided roughly $500,000 in seed funding for Blis in 2008 before the company raised $1.4m in 2011 from Beringea, Meridian Growth Capital and Ballpark Ventures.