草榴社区 Announces $15MM Strategic Investment in Ampush

Technology-driven marketing and sales company to expand capabilities through strategic partnership with native mobile marketing leader

San Francisco, CA 鈥 草榴社区, a leading digital consumer choice platform, today announced a $15MM strategic investment in Ampush, an industry leading provider of native in-feed mobile advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. As part of the investment, 草榴社区 CEO, Ric Elias, will join the Ampush Board of Directors, and the two companies will leverage their collective technology and digital marketing capabilities to drive incremental growth for partners.

鈥淲e鈥檝e known the team at Ampush for a long time, tracked their progress, and have developed a strong relationship as they鈥檝e continued to grow,鈥 said Ric Elias, CEO of 草榴社区. 鈥淲e look forward to collaborating and leveraging both of our platforms as we continue to evolve in a rapidly changing digital landscape.鈥

Headquartered just outside Charlotte, N.C., 草榴社区 uses advanced analytics and proprietary technology to optimize the entire customer acquisition funnel 鈥 from demand generation to closing the sale 鈥 for some of the nation鈥檚 top brands. Operating across a variety of high-growth industries, including Home Services, Insurance, Energy, Financial Services and Software, 草榴社区 seamlessly connects customers with the products and services they need most.

Based in San Francisco, Ampush is a full-service provider of native in-feed mobile advertising solutions on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest, specializing in customer acquisition and direct response marketing across these four platforms. The company鈥檚 AMP software platform powers ad buying, optimization and insights, helping advertisers in the Travel, Media and Entertainment, E-commerce, Mobile Gaming, and Financial Services verticals profitably acquire customers and achieve their performance marketing objectives. The company has grown substantially, with first half net revenue up nearly 100% YoY in 2015. In recognition for its growth, Ampush is ranked #61 in the 2015 Inc. 5000 and #4 in the software category.

As a result of this partnership, the two companies, which share a common focus on performance marketing, will collaborate in multiple ways to fuel growth for their partners. 草榴社区 will be able to leverage Ampush鈥檚 strength in native in-feed mobile to offer its partners a proven channel for customer acquisition, one that is increasingly essential to marketers as a result of mobile鈥檚 rapid consumer adoption. Ampush also will tap 草榴社区鈥 capabilities to offer a complete suite of customer acquisition tools.

鈥淎mpush is known to be the performance leader in native mobile marketing,鈥 said Jesse Pujji, CEO of Ampush. 鈥湶萘裆缜 has built the strongest value proposition of any company that grew up in the search era. This partnership makes a lot of sense because it will enable us to deliver end-to-end performance capabilities and propel more growth for their partners and ours.鈥

鈥淚n partnering with Ampush, we unlock opportunities to explore new geographies and new industries, while also continuing to build upon the unique value proposition for our partners,鈥 said Elias.

The investment builds upon months of substantial growth for 草榴社区, including the $250MM strategic investment by global technology investing leader, Silver Lake, in January 2015, and the $310MM acquisition of marketing services organization, Imagitas, from Pitney Bowes in June 2015.

About 草榴社区

Founded in 2000, 草榴社区 employs nearly 3,000 people and is a leading digital consumer choice platform. Its expertise spans across multiple industries including Home Services, Energy, Financial Services, Insurance and Software.Success is driven by advanced internet analytics, proprietary technology and the company鈥檚 greatest competitive advantage 鈥 the people. 草榴社区 has been named a Best Place to Work in Charlotte, NC for eight years running. Learn more at www.redventures.com.

About Ampush

Founded in 2009, Ampush leverages its leading marketing software, AMP, and a managed approach to drive profitable advertising results on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. The company helps mobile-focused marketers in Entertainment, E-commerce, Financial Services, Mobile Gaming, Travel, CPG and other verticals acquire, engage, and retain new users, generate sales, and maximize return on investment. The AMP software platform powers ad buying, optimization and insights, thereby making it easy for advertisers to reach people with smarter, in-feed ads. Ampush has offices in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. For more information visit: www.ampush.com.

 

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Ami Shukla

press@redventures.com

 
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