Invidi Technologies, a developer of addressable advertising solutions for TV operators, announced it has completed a $49 million funding round with a final investment from DirecTV, a previous investor and customer.
The fourth round of funding brings Invidi, founded in 2000, to $111.5 million raised to date. Previously announced participants in the latest round were Google, WPP's GroupM, Motorola Ventures, Experian, NBC, Verizon and venture capital firms Menlo Ventures, InterWest Partners, EnerTech Capital, Westbury Equity Partners and BDC Capital.
The New York-based company has 55 employees. Invidi has struck long-term distribution agreements to deploy its addressable-ad technology with DirecTV, Dish Network and Verizon FiOS TV. All told the targeted-advertising vendor claims it is rolling out its system to cover more than 36 million TV households in the U.S. and elsewhere.
DirecTV expects to roll out Invidi's Advatar software in DVR set-tops to approximately 10 million subscribers through 2011. The No. 1 satellite TV operator also reached a deal with agency Starcom MediaVest Group, which plans to place $10 million to $20 million worth of household-addressable ads this year through DirecTV.
With the Invidi system, DirecTV can store up to 60 minutes of ads -- 120 30-second spots -- on each DVR and refresh them daily. Then any of those ads can be served up in specific local ad breaks based on demographic information and other predetermined viewer metrics specified by advertisers.
Simply with the ability to sell local advertising, DirecTV expects to generate up to $400 million in additional revenue. The company has said it plans to be able to sell local ads on 50 channels in 50 markets within two years.
"We believe the addressable advertising market represents a significant revenue opportunity for DirecTV," DirecTV chief technology officer Rômulo Pontual said in statement."With Invidi-enabled DirecTV set-top boxes, advertisers will have a unique platform to deliver relevant messages directly to consumers in a highly targeted and flexible way."
Invidi CEO David Downey commented, "We are immensely gratified by the strong support Invidi has received from every sector of the television advertising industry."
Last year, Invidi was granted three U.S. patents, which the company claims cover key functionality underlying its addressable advertising system.
