Velti began almost a decade ago in Greece and Europe as a mobile platform and technology play. Today the company has evolved into a full-service mobile advertising and marketing company with last year’s launch of its MGage marketplace. The company’s vision is to be a soup-to-nuts provider of mobile advertising and marketing solutions, from loyalty, CRM and SMS services to mobile ad campaign development and analytics.
A little over a year ago Velti bought AdInfuse for its client base and technology:
Ad Infuse’ s leading mobile ad serving and routing technology platforms enable advertisers, publishers, brands, and operators to place mobile ads on multiple networks and manage them in real-time. Ad Infuse works with leading advertisers, publishers, and operators in the US and Europe, including: Procter & Gamble, Dell, Disney, Swisscom, France Telecom, Orange and Microsoft.
Earlier today Velti announced that it acquired San Francisco-Bay Area based Media Cannon for an undisclosed amount. This appears to be an extension of the thinking and strategy that resulted in the AdInfuse acquisition last year:
This acquisition provides Velti with a complementary technology platform and proprietary solutions that enable an even richer mobile advertising and mobile Internet user experience, as well as a series of mobile marketing “post click” interactions. The Media Cannon platform also delivers carrier-class infrastructure, API access, transcoding . . .
In addition to technology, Velti is buying a client base and revenue: “well-known brands, advertising agencies and Tier-1 wireless carriers in the U.S.,” according to the press release.
Both the AdInfuse and Media Cannon acquisitions have raised Velti’s US and general North American presence and profile. Velti’s ultimate vision is to enable marketers, publishers and technology providers to plug in to Velti’s wide ranging mobile “marketplace.” The company currently has operationsin 35 countries and claims to be the world’s largest mobile marketing company.
However it still has a way to go to achieve the visibility and “credibility” of some of the more familiar US based ad networks: AdMob, JumpTap, Millennial, etc.
Amobee is pursuing a very similar course and strategic vision.