After PubMatic, Komli Media follows with mega Series D round

New Delhi: Mumbai-based ad network Komli Media has raised $39 million in a Series D round of funding led by existing venture capital investor Norwest Venture Partners. The company’s other existing investors — Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) — and new investor Western Technology Investment also participated in this round. This takes the total capital raised by the company so far to over $67 million.

Incidentally, Komli’s fundraising comes just inside a week of Redwood City-based ad network PubMatic raising a $45 million mezzanine round of finance from August Capital and existing investors. PubMatic and Komli share the same founder in Amar Goel, who is the chairman of both companies. His younger brother Rajeev Goel is co-founder and CEO of PubMatic. Both Komli and PubMatic were founded in 2006. The two companies also share common investors including DFJ, Nexus and Helion.

Komli’s latest funds infusion will be used to invest in the company’s core media technology platforms and to expand its presence across the Asia-Pacific region, said a press release issued today to announce the deal. “This financing will allow us to materially scale our platform and operations by investing in our real-time bidding, data, analytics, and re-targeting solutions to improve ROI for advertisers and yield for publishers,” CEO Prashant Mehta said in the release.

The company has been on an aggressive expansion spree in the Asia-Pacific region since 2010, primarily through mergers and acquisitions. It has bought five companies in the region since June 2010. It scored its fifth acquisition this February when it bought Singapore-headquartered digital media network Admax Network for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition gave Komli access to a publisher network of 4,600 local and international websites.

Last July, it acquired ZestAdz, a mobile ad platform based in Chennai, again at undisclosed deal terms. This was preceded by the acquisition of Singapore-based digital media company Aktiv Digital for an undisclosed amount, which gave Komli a physical presence in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines. The company’s second acquisition was UK-based Indoor Media, an online marketing company, in 2010 and its first was Sydney-based PostClick the same year.

Komli claims that it has grown 150% annually since 2009, but did not disclose any numbers. Its platform is currently used by 5,000 and it reaches over 270 million users monthly, said the press release.

Norwest, the Menlo Park, California-headquartered venture capital investor entered Komli last January, leading a $15 million Series C round of funding. The company raised an undisclosed seed round of funding from DFJ and Helion in 2007. In 2008, it raised a $7 million Series A round from DFJ and Helion followed by a $6 million Series B round from Nexus and existing investors.

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