Triggit, a demand side platform that has lately repositioned itself as a Facebook Exchange specialist, has raised a $7.4 million Series B round from existing investors. Spark Capital and Foundry Group participated, as did the company’s recently added CRO Chris Zaharias.
CEO Zach Coelius tells AdExchanger, “We’ve focused every bit of our development and resources on FBX last 11 months.” The money will go to operations, and expansion of Triggit’s international sales presence to South America, Europe, and Asia. This year its headcount has grown from 10 to 32 staff, and it has opened sales offices in Boston, New York, and L.A.
Sometimes an inside round is considered an ominous sign for a startup, an indication executives were unable to line up new investors and therefore had to lean on existing owners to keep the lights on. But Coelius makes a compelling case that Triggit’s not on the ropes.
Triggit is not yet profitable, true, but Coelius says revenue has grown 300% since FBX beta-launched in June. Some of that growth is cyclical owing to the year-end marketing lift, and some of it is a testament to the retargeting opportunity on Facebook.
Hilton, Kmart and Lowes are advertisers, and new customers are coming onboard – including one that signed last week and is already spending $20,000 a day on FBX retargeting.
And FBX performance and return on investment remain high. “In particular, retail and travel advertisers have been seeing CTRs are high as .7% for their dynamic FBX ads, which rivals the performance of their paid search campaigns,” the company said.
What about its roots as a platform for IAB standard display advertising, which was Triggit’s bread and butter until June of this year? Coelius says that side of the business is still there, and he’s upselling new Facebook Exchange clients on it.
“The IAB display market for us isn’t growing as fast and it’s pretty mature. A lot of our new customers who signed up for FBX are now using us for IAB. We want to support every channel but because Facebook is a new channel we’re putting everything into it.”
