Boulder ad-tech firm sovrn Holdings raises $18M funding round

BOULDER — Advertising technology firm sovrn Holdings Inc. on Wednesday afternoon announced that the company has closed an $18 million round of funding led by Boulder-based Foundry Group.

Company officials stated in a press release that the cash infusion would be used to “accelerate both organic and inorganic growth opportunities.”

In addition to Foundry Group, Oak Investment Partners, Archer Venture Acquisitions and John Battelle participated in the round.

Boulder-based sovrn provides a programmatic advertising platform that helps online publishers sell their unsold advertising inventory to ad agencies through real-time online auctions.

“We see exciting areas for growth in the ad tech market and we wanted to buttress our already strong balance sheet in order to quickly take advantage of opportunities,” sovrn CEO Walter Knapp said in the release.

Sovrn formed out of a deal in early 2014 that saw San-Francisco-based Federated Media Publishing sell its name and content marketing business to Texas-based LIN Digital Media. The remaining online advertising and publisher platform business was rebranded as sovrn Holdings Inc., with Boulder as its headquarters. Federated Media had built the sovrn side of its business through the 2011 acquisition of Boulder-based Lijit Networks Inc.

Sovrn has offices in Denver, San Francisco and New York.

The company employs about 125 people in all, including roughly 100 at its Twenty Ninth Street mall headquarters in Boulder. Vice president of marketing Mark Piquette said the company would be adding staff in the wake of the funding, mostly in Boulder, but said it’s hard to say how many people over the next 12 months.

The privately held company doesn’t disclose revenue but officials said second quarter sales this year beat last year by 90 percent. Piquette said more double-digit growth is projected for 2016.

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