Samba Ads, the first video advertising network in Brazil, has raised a $500K seed funding round to boost its video ad network business. The round was led by Initial Capital, which was also joined by 500 Startups, e.Bricks Digital and Rhodium. In previous round the company was received angel-investment funding from Groupon (Brazil) Co-Founder, Florian Otto.
Samba Ads say the funding will them to consolidate their leading position in the Latin American market, with a particularly strong focus on Brazil. Last year Samba Ads served 100 million video ads were served across their network, which was founded in 2012 as a spin-off of Samba Tech, a video delivery platform. The company is already working with international and local brands. The company’s publishers range from vertical content sites and social games, to broadcasters like SBT and media conglomerates like Abril.
Samba Ads provides media buyers access to millions of video views on local (Brazilian) premium publishers, in the form of standard and interactive formats, with targeting capabilities for devices, geography and user behaviour. Samba Ads kindly provided some useful background information on the Brazilian market:
- The video market in Brazil is one of largest worldwide, with a viewing audience of 43 million people monthly and a penetration of 82.2% among internet users (Dec/12);
- Brazil ranks as the 5th largest internet market globally.
- Brazilians spent $12.2 billion online in 2012 – and will spend over $25 billion by 2017.
- Brazil will host the two most important sport events, World Cup and Olympics, receiving over $30 billion on investment from the Brazilian government.
- Local Government will invest $ 9 billion in broadband in the next 4 years.
- Latin Americans spend 56% more time on social networking sites than the worldwide average.
- People in Latin America spent $3.62 billions in digital ads in 2012 – 112% increase in just four years.
- In 2013, Latin America will be the second largest market in the world in digital ad spend.
