SHANGHAI, March 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, global performance advertising platform Avazu Inc. (Avazu) headquartered in Shanghai announced that it has raised $48 million in Series A financing. Investors include leading domestic and international companies as well as an experienced U.S. internet-focused private equity fund. With this funding, Avazu will aggressively pursue global opportunities through strategic investments and M&A.
"Chinese internet companies pursuing global opportunities are an important trend moving forward," says Yi Shi, Founder and CEO of Avazu. "As the largest and most efficient advertising platform (with performance-driven pricing models) for Chinese internet companies promoting themselves in global market, Avazu will take advantage of the financing to further accelerate the company's overall 'platform strategy'. We aim to help more Chinese internet companies to expand in the international market."
Established in 2009, Avazu is a technology-driven company focusing on global PC & mobile digital advertising. The company developed the first programmatic advertising platform in Asia. Avazu is currently the largest performance advertising platform for Chinese internet enterprises seeking to promote themselves abroad. It's long-term clients include Tencent, Baidu, Changyou.com, Google, Yahoo, Arvato, etc.
Gaorong Capital, who led this round of financing, comments: "We see enormous potential for Chinese internet companies as they pursue globalization. Avazu's advertising platforms can offer great assistance in this process. The company's proprietary, cutting-edge advertising technologies set high entry barriers for competitors. We are fully confident about the future of Avazu."
Avazu developed a set of solutions to help advertisers accurately reach their target audience. Customers no longer need to pay for their advertising campaigns based on CPM or CPC model, but rather by the number of new users acquired or sales volume realized (CPA, CPI, CPS). This let the customers "see with their own eyes" the result of their advertising. This pricing model is unique among domestic industry peers.
In response to the customer demand, Avazu has released three products for its performance seeking customers: Avazu DSP (demand-side platform), a RTB-based bidding platform; Avazu Tracking, a cross-media ad performance tracking system, and Avazu Private Exchange, a private ad exchange platform. The total amount of biddable traffic from Avazu exceeds over 100 billion ad impressions per month, reaching more than 85% of global internet users in approximately 130 countries around the world.
Currently Avazu operates offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, and Amsterdam. It plans to open new offices in New York, Berlin, Seoul and London over the next three to six months.
