FreakOut Secures $5.4M Series B Funding Round From YJ Capital; Proceeds Invested In "Dobleas" Mobile Advertising Start-up

NEW YORK, March 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The advertising industry's first real-time mobile demand-side platform (DSP) provider with real-time data, Dobleas (www.dobleas.com), emerged from a year of stealth operations by announcing the closing of a $5.4 million Series B funding round from Tokyo-based FreakOut, Inc.

The funding follows last week's investment of a similar amount in FreakOut by YJ Capital, a Yahoo Japan venture capital fund. FreakOut is a digital marketing company that pioneered the first DSP in Japan and has grown rapidly. The investment will be used to bolster Dobleas' engineering recruitment in support of its real-time bidding (RTB) infrastructure for mobile while building out the company's U.S. organization.

Headquartered in New York City, Dobleas was started up and spun-off last year by FreakOut President Yuzuru Honda, a serial entrepreneur and former Yahoo development manager. Dobleas is led in the U.S. by Yugo Asato, chief executive officer and president, together with a seasoned management team with extensive digital advertising and marketing experience.

Dobleas is setting out to fill a void in the mobile advertising market – trying to make it easier for buyers and sellers to do business in real-time and in a fully transparent manner.  Since its founding in April 2012 and start up of operations in June, Dobleas has tapped into its engineering resources in Japan to build a robust mobile DSP while partnering with eight RTB supply sources.

"FreakOut has already established itself as the best DSP in the Japanese market. Its entry into the mobile ad market, leveraging its advanced and proprietary technologies, is a highly strategic move," said Takao Ozawa, chief operating officer, YJ Capital, Co. "The company has the potential to revolutionize mobile ad technology, not only domestically but globally."

"YJ Capital's investment in FreakOut, in turn allowing our further investment in Dobleas, is validation of the company's mobile technology and business model," said Mr. Honda.  "I have the utmost confidence in Dobleas' executive team to bring value to the mobile advertising market and real-time mobile DSP solution." 

Dobleas enables marketers to buy real-time impressions in a transparent automated way across leading mobile supply sources.  Through the company's mobile data management platform (DMP), advertisers can create targetable segments based on audience behaviors and run audience targeting campaigns on the same platform.  Its mobile DMP integrates first or third-party data directly to empower scalable audience targeting. As a result, Dobleas is simplifying the buying process and giving marketers an innovative new way to discover, target and reach new audiences.

The company's management team includes:

• Yugo Asato, chief executive officer and president: Mr. Asato was a founding member of AudienceScience Japan, a targeting technology company for digital marketers. Previously, he was part of the team which launched Japan's first ad exchange, Right Media Exchange (part of Yahoo!, Inc.) in 2007;
• "Eda" Hirofumi Sakaeda, chief strategy officer. Mr. Sakaeda served as chief financial officer and executive vice president of ADK America, a full-service, WPP Group agency, for seven years starting in 2005. Previously, he was director of client services for ADK Hong Kong; and
• Francisco Quiroga, vice president of business development and client services: Mr. Quiroga helped launch international mobile DSP StrikeAd in New York. He was a strategic accounts director at AppNexus and previously managed the entire South American market for Right Media.

In addition, Dobleas has appointed emerging media specialist Phil Miano to the new position of chief revenue officer where he will lead Dobleas' growth strategy. Previously, Mr. Miano served as director of mobile for Videology Group and was senior vice president of development and demand sales for Collider Media (later acquired by Videology). Prior to those positions, Mr. Miano was national sales director, mobile advertising sales, for AOL and helped to launch Microsoft's search advertising unit in the U.S. market.

"With ad spending budgets shifting to mobile and programmatic buying on the rise, Dobleas is uniquely positioned to capture the confluence of these emerging trends," said Mr. Asato, chief executive officer, Dobleas.  "Building on our deep technology roots in web advertising through the success of FreakOut, Dobleas offers ad agencies and brands the industry's only true mobile DSP with innovative display ad technology DNA."

Given the growing complexity of media buying in the digital and mobile supply landscape, Dobleas also offers customized programmatic buying with a full access API that enables full interoperability to enable partners to execute any functionality on its platform, build customized front-ends and integrate with existing technology.  

For more information about Dobleas, visit www.dobleas.com or write to [email protected].

About Dobleas
Headquartered in New York City, Dobleas (www.dobleas.com) is a mobile advertising technology company. Its true mobile demand-side platform (DSP) with real-time bidding (RTB), leverages first- and third-party live data to enable the purchase of real-time impressions across leading mobile ad exchanges and supply side platforms. Dobleas' mobile Data Management Platform (DMP), machine-learning bidding/optimization algorithms, full-access API and private exchange solutions allow marketers, advertisers and agency professionals to achieve better results for direct response, branding and full-funnel marketing.  Founded in 2012, Dobleas is a subsidiary of FreakOut, Inc., a digital marketing company that pioneered the first DSP in Japan.

SOURCE Dobleas