SAN FRANCISCO, April 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- AppNexus, the world leader in real-time advertising technology, today launched "AppNexus Accelerate" (www.appnexus.com/accelerate) to spur innovation in advertising technology by providing selected early stage companies a platform to rapidly build solutions and grow their businesses. The AppNexus platform provides robust tools and APIs into its core capabilities, allowing companies to focus on building innovations that drive new value. With a vibrant ecosystem of over 250 companies already on the AppNexus platform, startups can connect seamlessly to hundreds of potential customers.

AppNexus Accelerate™ will provide selected ad tech startups that already leverage AppNexus APIs or are building apps for the AppNexus Marketplace a channel to potential funding from leading venture capital firms Tribeca Venture Partners, First Round Capital, and Venrock. AppNexus Accelerate will further accelerate the launch of these qualifying startups by simplifying the onboarding process, providing technical guidance, and helping them market their products.

"Our approach with AppNexus Accelerate™ is to help foster agile ad tech startups by providing them a platform for growth and innovation, allowing them to focus not on infrastructure but on better and new ways to advance our industry," said AppNexus CEO Brian O'Kelley.  "The next big idea in advertising isn't going to need tens of millions of dollars to succeed, just a committed founding team and an AppNexus account."

"Approximately 20% of the ad tech businesses approaching Tribeca for funding were already built on the AppNexus platform, so we saw a unique opportunity to partner with AppNexus to further develop the ecosystem and invest in the best emerging companies," said Chip Meakem, Managing Partner, Tribeca Venture Partners. "As long term investors and partners with the AppNexus team we're excited to work together to fund and support this next wave of innovation."

"With an executive team comprised of digital advertising trailblazers and a record of success, AppNexus is uniquely positioned in the industry to be able to launch an acceleration program for ad technology companies," said Mike Tyrrell, Partner, Venrock. "We are thrilled to launch AppNexus Accelerate to discover and support the next generation of disruptive companies in digital advertising."

For more information and participation rules for on AppNexus Accelerate™, visit http://www.appnexus.com/accelerate.

About AppNexus
AppNexus is the world leader in real-time advertising technology, serving the largest and most innovative buyers and sellers of online advertising, including Microsoft Advertising Exchange, Collective and Technorati Media.  Led by the pioneers of the Web's original ad exchanges at Yahoo!'s Right Media and Google's DoubleClick, AppNexus offers the industry's most advanced technology platform that empowers companies to build, manage and optimize their entire online advertising businesses. Based in New York City, AppNexus is backed by an outstanding group of investors including Microsoft, Venrock, Kodiak Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and Ron Conway. For more information, visit www.appnexus.com.

SOURCE AppNexus