I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Andy Klein and his team at Spotzer. Spotzer recently announced a Euro 10 million investment from Sierra Ventures and European Directories. I must disclose that we invested in the angel round at Spotzer.
Spotzer is an exciting company working in the white hot space of highly targeted and affordable advertising. Spotzer is based in Amsterdam with offices in the UK, San Francisco, and New York. They hope to become the first truly global advertising company in the highly targeted video space.
In thinking about Spotzer's new investment, it reminds me of the importance of taking on investors strategically for reasons besides money. Often it is not the best "deal" that you should chase, but the most doors a potential investor can open.
Spotzer's list of strategic investors:
Dutchview BV - Holland's largest post production company serving the Dutch population.
Cyrte Investments - media investment firm with deep relationships in the Netherlands
European Directories - pan-European directories service group with strong marketing holds in most of Europe
Sierra Ventures - California based firm with a strong record in the United States
In any area, it is important to get strategic investors. In the space of global media advertising, it is essential. Without those investors to open doors to get into media networks and get national creative agencies to sign on to your product, you face a huge uphill battle.
Let's briefly take a look at Spotzer's largest competitor, Spotrunner, based in the US. Spotrunner's investors:
CBS Corporation
WPP - huge multinational advertising agency
Interpublic Group - huge multinational advertising agency
Battery Ventures - blue chip VC firm
Index Ventures - young global VC firm that backed Skype
As you can see, strategic investment is the key to thriving in any sector, particularly advertising media.
I expect this space to flourish over the next few years with a few possible public offerings on US or global markets. As more and more of these types of companies continue to receive funding, there will also be a nice wave of acquisition and consolidation.
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