UK-based ad exchange platform Tapdaq has received $6.5m in a series A round from investors including BGF Ventures, the venture capital arm of UK-government mandated growth equity firm British Growth Fund, Sky News reported on Wednesday.
VC fund Spring Partners and venture firms Balderton Capital and Open Ocean Capital also took part in the round.
British Growth Fund is a £2.5bn ($3.6bn) initiative set up by the UK government and backed by five domestic banks: Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered. BGF Ventures has been allocated £200m and typically invests between £1m and £6m in series A and B rounds.
Founded in 2012, Tapdaq allows independent app developers to cross-promote their products in each other’s apps. It previously obtained $1.4m in a 2014 seed round led by Balderton Capital and backed by Open Ocean.
Ted Nash, co-founder of Tapdaq, said: “For an app to succeed today, developers need to be either very wealthy or incredibly lucky. This is because the current app ecosystem is not designed to allow the most original or innovative content to be discovered.”
– A version of this article was first published by our sister site Global Government Venturing.