$170m for Audience Relationship Platform OpenWeb

Community engagement platform OpenWeb has announced $170m in Series F funding, valuing the company at around $1.5 billion.

OpenWeb, which has offices in New York, Tel Aviv, Kiev, San Diego, Canada, London and Paris, partners with publishers and brands to build direct relationships with their audiences via online communities, built through a social media engagement platform. The funding round, which brings OpenWeb's total to $393m, was led by existing investor Georgian, raises the company's valuation by almost 50% in the last twelve months, and will support continued expansion including recruitment of new publishers (it already boasts more than 1,000), advertisers and partners, as well as development of its applications.

The firm was founded in 2015, has around 265 employees and lists The New York Times, Samsung Next and Dentsu among its other investors. Recent senior hires include Chief Business Officer Mark Howard and its first CMO, Tiffany Xingyu Wang; and it has recently acquired advertising platform ADYOULIKE for $100 million.

Co-founder and CEO Nadav Shoval (pictured) comments: 'This investment represents an incredible show of confidence in the mission we have set for ourselves: To combat toxicity and create healthier, open spaces for conversations that move society forward. There is a paradigm shift happening right now in the media, and we have the opportunity to drive major changes in how people communicate with one another in virtual spaces, as well as how publishers and advertisers form and maintain lasting relationships with their audiences'. Margaret Wu, Lead Investor at Georgian says publishers are 'searching for trusted, quality alternatives to the 'walled gardens' of social media' and adds: 'we saw an opportunity to collaborate with OpenWeb to create quality social environments for brands that deliver personalized advertising at-scale'.

The company is online at www.openweb.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.