MoPub, a mobile ad serving start-up built by ex-Google and AdMob guys, has raised a seed round from Accel Partners and Harrison Metal Capital. The team is angling to become the DoubleClick of mobile, serving up targeted ads to apps and websites from various networks. The amount of the seed round wasn’t disclosed.
Mobile advertising isn’t a major moneymaker for many app developers, but the market more than doubled to $ 877 million in the past year in the U.S., with the rising competition between Apple and Google. Consultancy BIA/Kelsey now estimates that the mobile ad market will grow to $ 3 billion by 2013. If MoPub’s can deliver on its promise to serve targeted ads to consumers, it should be able to help further catalyze the mobile ad market, which is still just scratching the surface of its potential.
The start-up, still in private beta with plans to launch in January, was fittingly built in AngelPad, an incubator started by ex-Googlers. The MoPub team is led by Jim Payne, Bryan Atwood and Nafis Jamal, who have experience working at Google and AdMob, which was acquired by Google. Game maker Booyah is one of the first companies to deploy MoPub. MoPub serves iOS and Android applications, and will support mobile websites soon.
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