Ad Tech Still Hot: VCs Pour in $30M More to Networked Insights, Yieldex

Yieldex brought in $10 million in a round led by Triangle Peak Partners and Hearst Interactive Media. The company is one of several to focus on the publisher side of the equation, after many years of VCs arming the buy side disproportionately with tech tools. Yieldex is, unsurprisingly, focused on yield. Many publishers talk about it, but managing inventory, figuring out pricing and the like remains in many organizations more art than science. Like Networked Insights on the buy side, Yieldex wants to heavy up on the science. It has now raised $32 million.

What appears to be happening is many companies are arming themselve for the long consolidation that’s inevitably coming. There have been some pretty healthy funding rounds coming lately, including Clearspring getting $20 million and DoubeVerify taking $33 million. As one ad tech CEO explained to me, at a time of consolidation it’s better to have the bulk your competitors have — or more. The problem for many companies is the zombie issue. Too many companies will have inflated valuations, constricted growth potential and large cash reserves. That cocktail means they’ll be too big to be acquired but will also be too strong to fail or be forced into a merger.

The downside of that is the clutter problem of ad tech today. Nearly everyone in the industry agrees it’s too complicated and has too many players. The twist is they always think it’s some other guy that’s the problem.