Japan-based internet technology incubator and investor Digital Garage has invested alongside other investors in AdStage, a start-up that has developed an internet-based dashboard for small businesses to launch cross-network advertising campaigns.
The funding round was worth $1.4m and included investors Freestyle Capital, Quest Venture Partners, 500 Startups, XG Ventures, Mark Mullen, former Facebook/Myspace/Zynga executive Owen Van Natta, Jim Patterson, Stewart Alsop, Federated Media founder John Battelle, Rich LeFurgy, and Doug Barry.
As much as $1m in funding came from Digital Garage, one of AdStage’s existing investors, bringing its total fundraising to more than $2.5m since the company’s launch last year. Funding will be allocated to costs related to boosting its workforce from 11 employees to more than 20, according to news site InsideFacebook.
AdStage offers a single, self-serve dashboard for creating adverts that run across Google, Bing, Facebook and LinkedIn. The dashboard offers a lot of features, but with very little effort required of the client. AdStage also provides recommendations throughout the process based on data from similar and competitive companies, and search results can be seen in real-time.
The company plans to add 50 more advertisers as well as adding new advertising formats.