Upfront Ventures

Upfront Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 1996 and based in Santa Monica, California, with additional offices in Los Angeles. The firm specializes in early-stage investments, focusing on technology-led companies across various sectors, including digital media, e-commerce, financial services, software, and healthcare technology. Upfront Ventures primarily invests in North America, particularly in Southern California, San Francisco, and New York, while also considering opportunities in Europe and Latin America. The firm typically invests between $0.5 million and $15 million in seed rounds and $2 million to $5 million in Series A rounds, with the intention of reserving follow-on capital for future financing. Upfront Ventures is known for its long-term partnerships with startup founders and has backed notable companies such as Ring and Maker Studios. The firm is led by Managing Partners Yves Sisteron, Mark Suster, and Kara Nortman, and takes an active role in its portfolio companies by securing board seats.

Nina Steinberg Freedman

Director of Research

AJ Herrera

Investor

Stuart Lander

Chief Operating Partner

Pierre Morin

General Partner

Jacques Sisteron

Investor

Seksom Suriyapa

Partner

Kesar Varma

Investor

Hamet Watt

Board Partner

Peter Zakin

Investor

Katherine Zhang

Investor

Past deals in Outdoor Advertising

Outer

Series B in 2021
Outer, Inc. is a direct-to-consumer company specializing in the manufacture of outdoor furniture. Founded in 2017 and based in Santa Monica, California, Outer has transitioned from its previous name, Jia Outdoor, Inc., in April 2018. The company focuses on creating durable, eco-friendly outdoor furniture that is designed to withstand harsh conditions, utilizing sustainable materials in its production. Outer’s products are manufactured in a family-owned factory located near Shanghai. Since its inception, the company has experienced significant growth, increasing its revenue elevenfold by 2020 and expanding its workforce substantially within a short period. Outer aims to enhance outdoor living experiences for its customers through innovative and environmentally conscious furniture solutions.

Adway

Seed Round in 2021
Adway International, Inc. is a company that specializes in out-of-home advertising services, particularly through its innovative digital vehicular advertisement platform. Founded in 2018 and based in Beverly Hills, California, Adway enables advertisers to launch and track campaigns on a flexible and targeted basis. The company's unique approach involves equipping personal and company vehicles with attachable devices that project media content onto the vehicle's sides. This allows for geo-fenced advertising that can be displayed at specific locations and times, providing brands with the ability to connect directly with consumers while offering drivers a way to earn passive income without the need for traditional advertising methods like large rooftop displays or physical wraps.

Adway

Seed Round in 2021
Adway International, Inc. is a company that specializes in out-of-home advertising services, particularly through its innovative digital vehicular advertisement platform. Founded in 2018 and based in Beverly Hills, California, Adway enables advertisers to launch and track campaigns on a flexible and targeted basis. The company's unique approach involves equipping personal and company vehicles with attachable devices that project media content onto the vehicle's sides. This allows for geo-fenced advertising that can be displayed at specific locations and times, providing brands with the ability to connect directly with consumers while offering drivers a way to earn passive income without the need for traditional advertising methods like large rooftop displays or physical wraps.

GumGum

Series E in 2021
GumGum, Inc. is a technology and media company based in Santa Monica, California, specializing in in-image advertising and visual intelligence solutions. Founded in 2006, it provides a variety of services including influencer marketing, site monetization, community management, and targeted media buying. The company’s proprietary technology utilizes machine learning and deep learning to deliver contextual advertising, enabling brands to effectively engage with their target audiences. GumGum's visual intelligence platform, along with its contextual advertising engine, Verity™, allows advertisers to safely and accurately place ads alongside relevant content. Additionally, GumGum offers tools such as AdBuilder, which enables brands to customize and launch in-image and in-screen advertisements. The company has expanded its presence with offices in various cities across the United States, as well as in London and Sydney, enhancing its ability to serve clients globally.

Projector

Series B in 2020
Projector, founded in 2015 and based in San Francisco, California, develops a mobile notification platform aimed at enhancing product experiences for developers and product teams. The company focuses on creating collaborative tools for visual communication, enabling users to integrate videos, GIFs, social media, and presentations into their applications. By facilitating visual storytelling, Projector helps teams expand their creative capabilities beyond traditional app boundaries.

GumGum

Series D in 2020
GumGum, Inc. is a technology and media company based in Santa Monica, California, specializing in in-image advertising and visual intelligence solutions. Founded in 2006, it provides a variety of services including influencer marketing, site monetization, community management, and targeted media buying. The company’s proprietary technology utilizes machine learning and deep learning to deliver contextual advertising, enabling brands to effectively engage with their target audiences. GumGum's visual intelligence platform, along with its contextual advertising engine, Verity™, allows advertisers to safely and accurately place ads alongside relevant content. Additionally, GumGum offers tools such as AdBuilder, which enables brands to customize and launch in-image and in-screen advertisements. The company has expanded its presence with offices in various cities across the United States, as well as in London and Sydney, enhancing its ability to serve clients globally.

Adway

Seed Round in 2019
Adway International, Inc. is a company that specializes in out-of-home advertising services, particularly through its innovative digital vehicular advertisement platform. Founded in 2018 and based in Beverly Hills, California, Adway enables advertisers to launch and track campaigns on a flexible and targeted basis. The company's unique approach involves equipping personal and company vehicles with attachable devices that project media content onto the vehicle's sides. This allows for geo-fenced advertising that can be displayed at specific locations and times, providing brands with the ability to connect directly with consumers while offering drivers a way to earn passive income without the need for traditional advertising methods like large rooftop displays or physical wraps.

Pathmatics

Corporate Round in 2018
Pathmatics, Inc. is a digital advertising intelligence platform that serves advertisers, agencies, publishers, and ad tech providers. Founded in 2009 and based in Santa Monica, California, the company offers a comprehensive suite of data across display, social, video, mobile, and native advertising. Its Pathsource technology identifies key participants in the ad serving process, providing insights into digital ad performance for brands, competitors, and industries. By aggregating extensive marketing data, Pathmatics empowers users to optimize media strategies, minimize budget waste, and anticipate competitors' actions. The platform is integral to Nielsen’s digital ad intelligence and Kantar Media’s Facebook intelligence, and is utilized by leading agencies such as Mindshare and Mediacom. Pathmatics aims to simplify the complex landscape of digital marketing by transforming data into actionable insights.

Factual

Venture Round in 2018
Factual Inc. specializes in providing location-based data tailored for mobile advertising, developers, and enterprise applications. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the company offers a range of services, including APIs for local business and points of interest data, geofencing capabilities, and UPC-centric datasets for consumer packaged goods. Factual's platform enables product and engineering teams, marketers, and data analysts to access comprehensive and accurate location data, facilitating informed decision-making and effective marketing strategies. The company also features Geotag, a reverse geocoder designed for high-volume geotagging. With additional offices in New York and Shanghai, Factual operates as a subsidiary of Foursquare Labs, Inc., and has established a strategic partnership with Mitsui & Co.

All Day

Seed Round in 2016
All Day is a digital media company focused on creating an editorial brand and publishing technology tailored for mobile-first Millennial audiences. The company utilizes a combination of owned and partner social media properties to distribute content and engage audiences, facilitating content sharing and enhancing virality. All Day's network, which includes writers and editors, employs a content management system and social distribution dashboard to manage posts, track analytics, and boost engagement. With a growing presence on social media, All Day's brands have amassed over 28 million followers, contributing to a distribution network that reaches over 200 million across platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Notable accounts like HistoryinPics and EarthPix exemplify the company's strategy of delivering highly visual and shareable editorial content, which is also showcased on its primary website, AllDay.com.

Factual

Series B in 2015
Factual Inc. specializes in providing location-based data tailored for mobile advertising, developers, and enterprise applications. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the company offers a range of services, including APIs for local business and points of interest data, geofencing capabilities, and UPC-centric datasets for consumer packaged goods. Factual's platform enables product and engineering teams, marketers, and data analysts to access comprehensive and accurate location data, facilitating informed decision-making and effective marketing strategies. The company also features Geotag, a reverse geocoder designed for high-volume geotagging. With additional offices in New York and Shanghai, Factual operates as a subsidiary of Foursquare Labs, Inc., and has established a strategic partnership with Mitsui & Co.

Unified

Series B in 2015
Unified Enterprises, Corp. is a marketing and analytics technology company that specializes in connecting marketing data sets to optimize advertising investments. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in New York City, with additional offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta, Unified offers a range of services, including advertising strategy and execution, professional data solutions, and campaign automation. The company's proprietary business intelligence platform is designed specifically for social advertising, enabling marketers to make informed decisions by providing insights into their data and strategies. Unified has a proven track record of managing over one billion dollars in social investment data, serving Fortune 2000 brands and advertising agencies to enhance transparency and optimize marketing performance.

GumGum

Series C in 2015
GumGum, Inc. is a technology and media company based in Santa Monica, California, specializing in in-image advertising and visual intelligence solutions. Founded in 2006, it provides a variety of services including influencer marketing, site monetization, community management, and targeted media buying. The company’s proprietary technology utilizes machine learning and deep learning to deliver contextual advertising, enabling brands to effectively engage with their target audiences. GumGum's visual intelligence platform, along with its contextual advertising engine, Verity™, allows advertisers to safely and accurately place ads alongside relevant content. Additionally, GumGum offers tools such as AdBuilder, which enables brands to customize and launch in-image and in-screen advertisements. The company has expanded its presence with offices in various cities across the United States, as well as in London and Sydney, enhancing its ability to serve clients globally.

Adly

Venture Round in 2013
Adly Inc. is a digital marketing software and services provider that facilitates partnerships between brands and influencers to enhance audience engagement and drive sales. The company offers tools for data-driven audience targeting, in-stream social advertising, and real-time events designed to generate leads and actionable insights. Adly supports brands by identifying suitable influencers, executing strategic campaigns, and monitoring performance through its offerings, which include AudienceIQ for intelligent audience matching and Campaign Builder for customized advertising solutions. Since its inception in 2009, Adly has collaborated with over 150 major brands, successfully executing more than 25,000 celebrity-driven activations. The company is based in Beverly Hills, California.

Pathmatics

Seed Round in 2013
Pathmatics, Inc. is a digital advertising intelligence platform that serves advertisers, agencies, publishers, and ad tech providers. Founded in 2009 and based in Santa Monica, California, the company offers a comprehensive suite of data across display, social, video, mobile, and native advertising. Its Pathsource technology identifies key participants in the ad serving process, providing insights into digital ad performance for brands, competitors, and industries. By aggregating extensive marketing data, Pathmatics empowers users to optimize media strategies, minimize budget waste, and anticipate competitors' actions. The platform is integral to Nielsen’s digital ad intelligence and Kantar Media’s Facebook intelligence, and is utilized by leading agencies such as Mindshare and Mediacom. Pathmatics aims to simplify the complex landscape of digital marketing by transforming data into actionable insights.

Gradient X

Seed Round in 2012
Gradient X is the most advanced programmatic marketing platform for mobile. The future of advertising is the mobile device. Gradient X has developed proven technologies that allow advertisers to capitalize on the potential of mobile media. The company brings feature parity to mobile with what has come to be expected of platforms in more mature channels, alleviating the friction marketers have experienced to date. Gradient X is built for mobile from the ground up by ad tech industry veterans who understand what marketers need and what is required to achieve scale advertising performance. Gradient X founding team members have been founders or executives at companies that collectively have: seven exits, two IPOs, raised over $345m in funding. They are experts in ad tech from social, display, video and mobile, with more than five years of experience in programmatic. Gradient X raised $3.75 million in spring 2012 in a seed financing round including seven institutional firms and six angel investors. Investors include GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, Founder Collective, Crosscut Ventures, Double M Capital, Baroda Ventures, Siemer Ventures, and angel investors Walter Kortschak (Summit Partners), Mark Suster (GRP Partners), Jim Willenborg and Clark Landry.

GumGum

Series B in 2011
GumGum, Inc. is a technology and media company based in Santa Monica, California, specializing in in-image advertising and visual intelligence solutions. Founded in 2006, it provides a variety of services including influencer marketing, site monetization, community management, and targeted media buying. The company’s proprietary technology utilizes machine learning and deep learning to deliver contextual advertising, enabling brands to effectively engage with their target audiences. GumGum's visual intelligence platform, along with its contextual advertising engine, Verity™, allows advertisers to safely and accurately place ads alongside relevant content. Additionally, GumGum offers tools such as AdBuilder, which enables brands to customize and launch in-image and in-screen advertisements. The company has expanded its presence with offices in various cities across the United States, as well as in London and Sydney, enhancing its ability to serve clients globally.

Factual

Series A in 2010
Factual Inc. specializes in providing location-based data tailored for mobile advertising, developers, and enterprise applications. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the company offers a range of services, including APIs for local business and points of interest data, geofencing capabilities, and UPC-centric datasets for consumer packaged goods. Factual's platform enables product and engineering teams, marketers, and data analysts to access comprehensive and accurate location data, facilitating informed decision-making and effective marketing strategies. The company also features Geotag, a reverse geocoder designed for high-volume geotagging. With additional offices in New York and Shanghai, Factual operates as a subsidiary of Foursquare Labs, Inc., and has established a strategic partnership with Mitsui & Co.

Adly

Series B in 2010
Adly Inc. is a digital marketing software and services provider that facilitates partnerships between brands and influencers to enhance audience engagement and drive sales. The company offers tools for data-driven audience targeting, in-stream social advertising, and real-time events designed to generate leads and actionable insights. Adly supports brands by identifying suitable influencers, executing strategic campaigns, and monitoring performance through its offerings, which include AudienceIQ for intelligent audience matching and Campaign Builder for customized advertising solutions. Since its inception in 2009, Adly has collaborated with over 150 major brands, successfully executing more than 25,000 celebrity-driven activations. The company is based in Beverly Hills, California.

Adly

Seed Round in 2009
Adly Inc. is a digital marketing software and services provider that facilitates partnerships between brands and influencers to enhance audience engagement and drive sales. The company offers tools for data-driven audience targeting, in-stream social advertising, and real-time events designed to generate leads and actionable insights. Adly supports brands by identifying suitable influencers, executing strategic campaigns, and monitoring performance through its offerings, which include AudienceIQ for intelligent audience matching and Campaign Builder for customized advertising solutions. Since its inception in 2009, Adly has collaborated with over 150 major brands, successfully executing more than 25,000 celebrity-driven activations. The company is based in Beverly Hills, California.

GumGum

Series A in 2009
GumGum, Inc. is a technology and media company based in Santa Monica, California, specializing in in-image advertising and visual intelligence solutions. Founded in 2006, it provides a variety of services including influencer marketing, site monetization, community management, and targeted media buying. The company’s proprietary technology utilizes machine learning and deep learning to deliver contextual advertising, enabling brands to effectively engage with their target audiences. GumGum's visual intelligence platform, along with its contextual advertising engine, Verity™, allows advertisers to safely and accurately place ads alongside relevant content. Additionally, GumGum offers tools such as AdBuilder, which enables brands to customize and launch in-image and in-screen advertisements. The company has expanded its presence with offices in various cities across the United States, as well as in London and Sydney, enhancing its ability to serve clients globally.

Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions

Venture Round in 1999
Yahoo Search Marketing provides a keyword-based "Pay per click" or "Sponsored search" Internet advertising service. Yahoo began to offer this service after it acquired GoTo that became Overture Services. GoTo was an Idealab spin off and was the first company to provide successfully a pay-for-placement search service following previous attempts that users did not receive well..

Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions

Venture Round in 1998
Yahoo Search Marketing provides a keyword-based "Pay per click" or "Sponsored search" Internet advertising service. Yahoo began to offer this service after it acquired GoTo that became Overture Services. GoTo was an Idealab spin off and was the first company to provide successfully a pay-for-placement search service following previous attempts that users did not receive well..
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