Video Ad Startup Innovid Raises $27.5M

Less than a year after its last round, Innovid is announcing that it has raised $27.5 million in new funding.

The New York City-headquartered company works with more than 220 advertisers, including Best Buy, Procter & Gamble and Walmart, to create, target and measure their video campaigns.

Co-founder and CEO Zvika Netter has said that what really sets Innovid apart is “a strategic decision to never get into media.”  In other words, it makes money entirely on a software-as-a-service model rather than ad-buying, which is supposed to allow the company to focus on technology and avoid some of the “gray areas” in online advertising around viewability and fraud.

In the funding release, Innovid once again points to “media neutrality” as one of the key factors in its growth, as well as its support for Internet-connected TVs — for example, it recently rolled out interactive video ads with Roku. The company isn’t just betting on Internet TV, since it also supports desktop, mobile and gaming consoles, but that’s where Netter sees a big opportunity.

The new round combines equity funding with $12.5 million in debt from Silicon Valley Bank and Triple Point Capital. Investors include New Spring Capital, plus previous backers Sequoia Capital Israel, Genesis Partners, Cisco Ventures and T-Venture. Innovid says it currently has more than 200 employees in eight offices across the globe and will use the new funding to expand across-the-board.