Deal Radar 2008: PubMatic

This story was written by Sramana Mitra.

I have watched Ad Networks cropping up everywhere over the last couple of years like mushrooms. How do you manage so many networks, and figure out which ones can make the most money for you if you are a publisher? Enter Pubmatic.

PubMatic provides small and mid-sized publishers with easy solutions to maximize their ad revenues so they can concentrate on content rather than worry about the business part of their sites. Thecompanyhelps publishers optimize ads from their ad networks and ad layouts and get a consolidated view of performance across all their ad networks. They also work with ad networks to help them reach the maximum number of publishers, sign on new ones, and strengthen their affiliation with these publishers.

The beta version is currently available free to publishers. All new users need to do is set up an account, create and implement ad tags like ad colors and locations, and PubMatic will find them the best ad network from over 200 choices. Publishers continue to collect their ad revenues directly from the ad networks they work with.

Founded in 2006, PubMatic is based in the Bay Area, California, with offices in Pune and Mumbai in India. The company was founded by Amar Goel, CEO and Rajeev Goel, president. Amar Goel was previously with Microsoft/MSN, McKinsey and Netscape Communications. He also founded Chipshot.com, a golf e-tailer. Rajeev Goel has over ten years' experience creating products and implementing business strategies at SAP, Diamond Management and Technology Consultants and was also co-founder at Chipshot. Mukul Kumar is VP of Engineering and founding engineer at the company.

PubMatic received seed investment from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Helion Venture Partners. In January 2008, they raised $7 million from Nexus India Capital and their previous two investors in a Series A round.

Companies offering similar services are YieldBuild and The Rubicon Project. But unlike these two companies, PubMatic is live with 1,300 sites. It supports ad networks like Google AdSense and Value Click.

PubMatic often holds contests among their publishers in an attempt to track the increase in ad revenue by using PubMatic's services. TechCrunchreports that companiessuch asWinCustomize and BikerOrNot have seen an over 100% increase in their ad revenues,emphasizing the benefit of using such services. What's also important to watch is how good a site's ad revenues were to begin with.

I am very convinced about the value proposition that PubMatic brings to the table, since they solve a problem that I face myself with my own site. At the moment, however, my Ad Networks are Adify-powered IDG, Forbes and Six Apart Media, with Adify doing the optimization. For sites that are using multiple Ad Networks would definitely benefit from what PubMatic offers.

By Sramana Mitra

More from CBS News