Balihoo Raises $4m to Promote Media Research Tool

Media research tool provider Balihoo has raised $4m, intended for increased sales and marketing efforts with the media buying and planning community.

The funding was led by venture capital firm Highway 12 Ventures, with participation from existing investor Lacuna Capital which ploughed $1.5m into the firm last year.

Balihoo provides web-based media planning software to streamline the media research, selection and request-for-proposal (RFP) processes. Based on a global database of advertising opportunities, the firm's search engine allows media buyers to find, gather, analyse and share data to help them identify where best to spend their advertising budget.

Its knowledge and communications platform has been in testing phase since last Autumn, and has been offered commercially since November. 'Our beta programme, which recently ended and included 8 of the top 10 media buying companies in North America, helped us refine Balihoo and identify areas for future development,' comments CEO Peter Gombert.

Since 'go live', Balihoo has released three media planning products:

• Balihoo Enterprise - custom development for integration with existing syndicated research providers
• Balihoo Basic - a free version that provides basic and advanced search plus access to all community media data including demographics, contacts and media kits
• Balihoo Pro - which integrates campaign management, a custom media database and RFI/RFP functionality.

Highway 12 said it decided to invest in Balihoo because of the advantage it provides media buyers by giving them a central location to find information.

Based in Boise, Idaho, the firm is online at www.balihoo.com.

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

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