Greystripe Raises $2 Million from NBC Universal

Greystripe, a San Francisco-based rich media ad platform for mobile, has raised $2 million in additional Series C funding from Peacock Equity Fund, a VC unit of NBC Universal. The two companies had a prior strategic relationship, although the equity funding is structured separately.

Worth noting that existing shareholder Steamboat Ventures is a Walt Disney Co. affiliate, which means that Greystripe has effectively raised capital from the parent companies of both NBC and ABC. I asked CEO Michael Chang if this meant Viacom was next on the list, but he laughed it off.

What Chang did say, however, is that Greystripe has no plans to follow in the footsteps of rival AdMob, which last week bought mediation company AdWhirl. “I’m still scratching my head over that deal, because mediation companies are supposed to be third-parties, be transparent,” Chang says. “How can you be both a third party and part of an ad network? I know there’s talk about making it open-source, but it still doesn’t make sense to me.”

The $2 million investment is an extension of a round that held a $5.5 million first close earlier this year, from Incubic Venture Capital, Monitor Ventures and Steamboat Ventures. At the time of that first close, Chang had said that Greystripe would be profitable by year-end. He told me that he still hopes that timeline stands, but acknowledged that it might get pushed off into the first quarter of 2010.

Greystripe has now raised $17.5 million in total VC funding.