Calumet Venture Partners, a Wisconsin-based venture capital firm, led a $900,000 round of investment in OptiMine Software, an advertising optimization software provider based in Minneapolis, Minn. Over time, Calumet’s partners will focus on early stage investments within the “I-Q Corridor,” which stretches from the Twin Cities through Wisconsin and into northern Illinois.
Several leading angel investors joined the OptiMine round, including Bill Watkins (former CEO of Seagate; current CEO of Bridgelux) and search marketing expert Stuart Larkins (former senior vice president of Doubleclick/Performics). As part of the financing, Toni Sikes, a general partner at Calumet, will join OptiMine’s board of directors.
“OptiMine is a best of breed in the new generation of companies offering online advertising optimization,” Sikes said. “Calumet is attracted to models that effectively employ sophisticated data mining tools, enabling customers to achieve efficiencies while maximizing profits. OptiMine’s completely-automated bid management application makes it entirely scalable and poised for continued strong growth in the rapidly expanding search market.”
The funding will allow the company to accelerate product development, and expand sales and marketing efforts.
OptiMine Software provides intelligent software for advertising optimization. The flagship product, OptiMine Paid Search Bid Management, uses patent-pending technology to forecast the performance of each paid search ad placement each day and automatically sets optimal bids. It is used by leading organizations such as Overstock.com, and may be implemented in-house, hosted, or as software-as-a-service.
“We’ve seen our optimization technology generate tremendous increases in advertising ROI in many industries,” said Robert Cooley, co-founder and chief technology officer of OptiMine. “The financial and strategic resources of our new investors will allow us to quickly deliver the technology to many more customers.”
For more information on OptiMine Software, contact info@optimine.com or call Rob Cooley at 952 236 6411 ext 101.
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