Ground Truth Raises $7 Million Series B Financing From Leading Investors in the Digital and Mobile Media Industries

SEATTLE, April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Ground Truth, the mobile measurement firm that delivers precise, timely and actionable mobile intelligence, today announced it has raised $7 Million in Series B financing.  Emergence Capital Partners and OPENAIR Ventures, two of the most respected venture capital firms investing in the digital and mobile media industries, joined existing investors Steamboat Ventures and Voyager Capital in the financing round.

The transaction brings Kevin Spain, principal at Emergence Capital Partners, to Ground Truth's board of directors.  Spain is an expert in consumer and enterprise technology, having spent his career at blue-chip companies including Microsoft and Electronic Arts. In his capacity at Emergence Capital Partners, Spain serves on the boards of Veeva Systems, Zuberance and SupportSpace.

"Mobile is a critical component to the growth of technology-enabled services, such as social media, cloud computing and SaaS business services," said Spain.  "Ground Truth provides unequalled insight into this vast opportunity with its accurate and precise measures of actual usage of these services on mobile devices. I'm eager to join this distinguished board of directors and accomplished management team as we deliver the data that is critical to transforming mobile into the world's largest medium."

Emergence Capital Partners invests in early- and growth-stage cloud-based business and consumer services companies such as Salesforce.com, aQuantive, HireRight, DoubleClick and SuccessFactors.

OPENAIR Ventures is well-known in the mobile industry for its deep bench of C-level executives with decades of experience building companies that have become household names in mobile, including Sprint, AT&T and Aircell.

"The product vision and execution of the Ground Truth executive team are as impressive as the opportunity the company is pursuing," said Ron LeMay, managing director, OPENAIR Ventures and a 35-year-telecom industry veteran. "Reliable, third-party measurement will herald the next evolution in mobile media. While many have tried to present various figures as facts, only Ground Truth's patent-pending True View™ methodology can deliver the fact-based data this industry needs to expand and fully capitalize on the mobile media economy."

Ground Truth plans to use the capital to expand its operations in the United States and internationally as it builds its mobile media measurement business.  The firm, which launched publicly less than three months ago, has already achieved substantial momentum, having signed dozens of clients and data provider partners including mobile operators, publishers and mobile infrastructure providers.  Ground Truth also recently announced that it has appointed five luminaries in the measurement and interactive media industries to its board of advisors, including executives from Hitwise, comScore, Razorfish, Yahoo!, Donovan Data Systems and Audience Science.

"We have delivered on a number of significant objectives as we built Ground Truth from a brilliant idea to market-changing product with a tremendous quantity and quality of supporters; from our clients and data partners to our investors and board of advisors," said Sterling Wilson, president and CEO, Ground Truth.  "The addition of Emergence Capital and OPENAIR Ventures--from both a capital and advisory perspective--will provide the infusion for Ground Truth to significantly expand its offerings to both clients and data partners around the world."

About Ground Truth

Ground Truth is a mobile measurement firm that delivers the precise, timely and actionable mobile intelligence required for operators, advertisers and publishers to measure, optimize and grow their businesses.  As the sole provider of actual usage data aggregated from millions of subscribers using True View™, a patent-pending census-based methodology, Ground Truth sets the benchmark for Mobile Internet measurement.  Ground Truth is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and is venture-backed by Emergence Capital Partners, OPENAIR Ventures, Steamboat Ventures and Voyager Capital. For more information about the company, please visit www.groundtruth.com.

About Emergence Capital Partners

Emergence Capital Partners is the leading venture capital firm focused on cloud-based business and consumer services companies. In 2002, Emergence Capital was the first to recognize the power and potential of SaaS to disrupt the technology industry and invested in some of the most successful companies including Salesforce.com and SuccessFactors. Their mission is to help build market leading companies in true partnership with forward thinking entrepreneurs. Today the firm has over $325 million under management from premiere institutional investors. For more information, visit www.emcap.com.

About OPENAIR Ventures

OPENAIR Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm focused on making equity investments in innovative companies that are advancing the next generation mobile and wireless market.  Leveraging its collective decades of wireless, venture capital and private equity experience, the OPENAIR Ventures team is uniquely positioned to assist entrepreneurs in building market leading companies. For more information visit www.OPENAIRVentures.com.

SOURCE Ground Truth