SAN FRANCISCO, CA — (Marketwired) — 06/12/13 — Flite, the paid media publishing company, and VivaKi, the global leader in digital advertising solutions, today announced a global partnership to roll out the Flite Platform to the Publicis Groupe network of agencies.
Using Flite, agencies can publish and distribute their clients- digital marketing content through paid media channels at scale. The Flite Platform enables real-time updates to live campaigns, allowing agency teams to publish fresh content to their display ads as quickly and easily as they would for their clients- websites or social media pages.
The announcement coincides with a recent investment round led by Iris Capital — the venture capital investment company sponsored by Publicis Groupe and Orange — with participation from Flite-s existing investors, including Sequoia Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and Condé Nast.
“Next Generation Storytelling is a key focus for Publicis Groupe, and Flite will allow our clients to publish content and tell stories that leverage social, mobile and API-s, and do so in a cost effective and agile way,” said VivaKi Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer Rishad Tobaccowala. “Recent acquisitions of similar companies were quite bullish (Buddy Media for $745m and Vitrue for $300m). Flite is in an even better strategic position in the market of paid media publishing. This market is still in its infancy, with potential to be massive.”
“SMG has been leveraging the Flite Platform for nearly two years,” said Lisa Weinstein, President, Global Digital, Data and Analytics at Starcom MediaVest Group. “We have identified the potential to connect with consumers through real-time experiences inspired by data and fueled by content. Flite allows us to increase marketing agility to deliver on these new experiences within the paid media environment and enables this in a more relevant and personalized way.”
Denis Barrier, partner at Iris Capital Management, said, “We are excited about Flite-s current success in the marketplace, and are fully convinced that their technology represents where the industry is going in the long run.”
“The partnership with VivaKi and the investment by Iris Capital/Publicis are a huge commercial, financial, and institutional validation of Flite-s work with the world-s top brands,” said Will Price, CEO of Flite. “We look forward to continuing to work closely with our partners to deliver compelling, relevant advertising for our brand clients.”
Part of Publicis Groupe (Euronext Paris Exchange: FR0000130577; and part of the CAC 40 index), the world-s third largest communications group, VivaKi was established in 2008 to propel the digital transformation and expertise of the Groupe and its agencies. Today we are the global leader in digital advertising solutions, working with the world-s leading organizations to help them navigate the evolving and chaotic media landscape.
VivaKi is organized across four distinct pillars: Products and Solutions includes Audience on Demand, a market-leading addressable media buying practice recognized as the first, best and most secure solution of its kind in the world; the Emerging Opportunities practice transforms new partnerships into digital marketing products and services. A well-known global component of this practice is The Pool, which explores and surfaces next generation ad models for emerging media platforms; Operational Consulting is a global process automation and standardization practice that streamlines systems, process and workflow for an open and networked world; VivaKi Exchange is a trading operation that leverages the scale of the Groupe-s combined media clout in 16 markets around the world, negotiates the most efficient and effective opportunities for our clients. Across the globe, VivaKi employs more than 300 engineers, technology experts, product designers, analysts and digital marketing professionals. Visit us online at or follow us on Twitter: @VivaKi.
Iris Capital is a pan-European venture capital fund manager specializing in digital economy. Since its inception in 1986, the Iris Capital team has invested $1.3 billion in more than 200 companies. Iris Capital targets opportunities in service or technology companies, seeking growth capital in order to realize their strategy. It provides active support to its portfolio companies on the basis of its strong sector specialization and experience, and has offices in Paris, Düsseldorf, San Francisco, Montreal, Riyadh, Dubai, Beijing and Tokyo. In 2012 Iris Capital has entered into a strategic partnership with Orange and Publicis to manage their joint venture initiative.
Flite is the leader in paid media publishing, delivering ad innovation at scale to the world-s top publishers and brands. Marketers use the self-service Flite Platform to reduce the complexity and cost of delivering differentiated ad products that engage their audiences. The Flite Platform serves, updates, and measures advertising in real-time and integrates web applications directly into online ad units fueling digital advertising innovation at scale. Flite enables marketers to be agile, and respond immediately to real-time performance metrics and daily events by updating their paid media creatives with relevant content and functionality.
Based in San Francisco with offices in New York City and Chicago, Flite is backed by Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst Venture Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, NCD Investors, Harrison Metal, Condé Nast, and Iris Capital. For more information, please visit or follow us on Twitter: @flite.
Winnie Kao
Flite
Josh Dysart
VivaKi
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