Banking on MediaBank
TECH MATTERS | Local company lands another investment from elite venture capital firm
Part of the "Second City" narrative for local Internet and technology companies says that in order to raise serious venture capital, it is essential to jump ship to the coasts. This idea is part comedy, part tragedy, and, perhaps one day, all history.
In a sign that coastal venture capital firms may view Chicago as more than just flyover country, elite Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates earlier this month invested $30 million in River North-based MediaBank. Founded in 2006 by serial and -- depending on your vantage point -- celebrated entrepreneur Brad Keywell, MediaBank today processes upwards of $18 billion a year in both digital and analog advertising accounts.
The company, which raised $10.5 million from NEA last July in its first round of financing, assists agencies including Chicago-based Starcom MediaVest Group as they procure and analyze media placements. In addition to managing transactions, MediaBank's technology is designed to analyze the impact of ad campaigns that are carried over anything from the Web to television to outside billboards and other "old media" platforms that historically have been difficult to track.
"Part of media buying is an art, and part of media buying is a science," said Keywell, 38, who is also a founder and/or significant stakeholder of Innerworkings, The Point, and Echo Global Logistics (all Chicago-based technology companies backed by NEA). "We intend to put as much science around it so it can be as good as can be."
Prior to starting this network of companies, all based at 600 W. Chicago, Keywell and partner Eric Lefkofsky founded online promotional products distributor Starbelly in 2000. After raising millions in venture capital near the tail end of the dot-com crash, Starbelly was sold to HA-LO Industries for $240 million. HA-LO -- which at its peak had $600 million in sales and 5,500 employees -- declared bankruptcy in 2001. During that episode, Keywell and Lefkofsky walked away with millions while being accused of selling HA-LO a bill of goods.
While Keywell would not disclose MediaBank's revenues, he did say employee headcount has nearly doubled to 150 since last summer. The company's impressive board of directors includes former CEOs from Kraft, McDonalds, Leo Burnett and R&R Donnelly. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern Dean Dipak Jain is also a director.
Call it a phone book for Facebook. Thanks to a new application developed by Skokie-based IfByPhone, Facebook's nearly 70 million members can now place phone calls to their trusted friends on the network. The application, which was released in March, enables participating Facebook members to receive Web-based calls from friends who visit their profiles without having to disclose their telephone numbers.
This is part of IfByPhone's "Phone Mashup" promotion where the company is giving away 1 million minutes of phone time to individuals who use its technology to place and route calls via the Web. The company is also inviting developers of this technology to share and refine their applications at www.phonemashup.com.
"We want to make it as easy as possible for people who build things on the Web to build telephony applications into their environment," said IfByPhone founder and CEO Irv Shapiro.
The MIT Enterprise Forum Tuesday night hosts an interactive panel that will explore how corporations are making money off online social networks. Participants include Alcatel-Lucent marketing director Mark Goodman, Playboy Online executive vice president Scott Stephen and a team from the University of Illinois Chicago that will share the latest goings on at Second Life.
The program, which will be moderated by KnowledgeShift CEO Nancy Munro, will be held at the offices of Bell, Boyd & Lloyd at 70 W. Madison. More information can be found at Mitefchicago.org.
