Dave Morgan’s Simulmedia Raises $4 Million

Simulmedia, a New York-based company aimed at helping television companies improve ratings by lifting the effectiveness of tune-in programming spots, has raised $4 million in Series A funding from Avalon Ventures and Union Square Ventures. The company is being launched by Dave Morgan, former founder of TACODA and Real Media.

PRESS RELEASE

Dave Morgan, who founded, developed and sold TACODA and Real Media, today announced that he will launch a new company outside of the Internet industry.  His new venture, Simulmedia, will help television companies improve ratings by lifting the effectiveness of their tune-in programming spots.

“Each year the television industry spends more than $10 billion in cash and commercial time to drive viewers to new and existing programs,” says Mr. Morgan. “Our goal will be to use sophisticated data analysis and predictive technology to redirect where and when cable operators and broadcast and cable networks place these spots in order to make them more effective and efficient in delivering the most desirable audiences. We hope to bring more focus and attention to an important part of the industry which has long been underserved.”

The goal of Simulmedia will be to put the right program promotion in front of the most likely potential viewers using only aggregated consumer and industry environmental data.

“We believe that television companies must get smarter about building audiences for their programming,” says analyst Imran Khan, Managing Director, J.P. Morgan. “It is essential for their growth, particularly given the competition for audience attention that they now face from the web and the increasing demands from their advertisers to reach specific audiences at scale.”

Simulmedia closed $4 million in Series A funding from Avalon Ventures and Union Square Ventures on March 3rd.

“The television industry wants and needs the right viewers at the right times,” says Rich Levandov of Avalon Ventures. “I am confident that Simulmedia can wrestle this big problem into efficient solutions for the television market.”

“We are excited to be in business with Dave again,” says Brad Burnham, of Union Square Ventures. “Dave is a fantastic entrepreneur. He has the ability to identify opportunities in the market, and attract great people to pursue them. With Simulmedia, Dave is taking his 15 years of experience with efficient digital advertising and applying it to a market sector that has used relatively little technology in the past and one which is finding it increasingly difficult to aggregate audiences of scale in the crowed media landscape.”

Mr. Morgan also announced that Bill Burke has joined the Simulmedia board of directors. With two decades of cable and digital experience, Mr. Burke is the former President of The Weather Channel Companies (where he successfully broadened programming content beyond traditional meteorological reports with the launch of story-driven shows like ‘Storm Stories’); Resort Sports Network Inc.; Time Warner Digital Media News and Information (where he oversaw the Internet strategy for CNN.com and Time Inc. Interactive); and TBS Superstation.

The company, based in Manhattan, is currently ramping up its launch team of scientists, researchers, engineers and operations executives who are developing Simulmedia’s first generation product.  The company is expected to formally launch later in 2009.

Dave Morgan has spent his career founding, building and operating market-leading digital advertising companies. He was the founder, CEO and Chairman of both TACODA, Inc., an online advertising company that pioneered behavioral online marketing in 2001 and acquired by AOL in September 2007 for $275 million, and Real Media, Inc., one of the world’s first online ad networks and a predecessor to 24/7 Real Media (TFSM), which was later sold to WPP for $649 million. Most recently, Mr. Morgan was Executive Vice President of Global Advertising Strategy at AOL, a Time Warner company.

Mr. Morgan holds degrees in law and political science and served as General Counsel and Director of New Media Ventures for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association from 1991 to 1995, where he helped launch more than a dozen new media businesses. He is a frequent writer, speaker and commenter on digital media, advertising and consumer privacy issues.

Mr. Morgan and his wife, writer Lorea Canales, live in Manhattan with their two daughters.

Photo of Mr. Morgan or Simulmedia logo available on request.

Simulmedia, Inc. (simulmedia.com) is a New York City-based marketing services company dedicated to improving the relevance and effectiveness of program promotion on television. Simulmedia is developing pioneering predictive models and technology to help television companies deliver the right promotions to the right viewers at the right time. The company’s founder and CEO is Internet entrepreneur Dave Morgan.