By Maisie Ramsay
There are some big changes under way at mobile advertising firm Nexage. The company just secured millions of dollars in venture capital, has appointed new people to its board of directors and will be relocating its headquarters.
The impetus for the changes stems from the $4 million in funding Nexage secured from the BlackBerry Partners Fund. The fund launched in May 2008 with $150 million in venture capital to invest in the smartphone market and is backed by Research In Motion (RIM), the Royal Bank of Canada and Thompson Reuters.
As part of the deal, mobile advertising guru Mike Baker has been appointed chairman of the Nexage board of directors. Baker formerly served as a vice president at Nokia and head of Nokia Interactive, the mobile advertising business unit created after the its 2007 acquisition of Enpocket, where Baker was the founding investor and CEO.
Matt Golden with the BlackBerry Partners Fund and Ryan Moore with GrandBanks Capital also will be joining the board.
“To fulfill its big potential, the mobile advertising market needs technology like Nexage that enables media buyers and sellers to easily reach relevant audience at scale,” Baker said in a statement. “Nexage has a unique platform that unites the fragmented media types and ecosystem silos to create one addressable global market.”
Nexage will move its headquarters from Fremont, Calif., to Boston, Mass., to “take advantage of the city’s recognized talent pool and success in mobile advertising.”
So far, the BlackBerry Partners Fund has provided financing to several start-up companies, including location-sensitive entertainment listings service Buzzd, mobile commerce software platform provider Digby and user analytics firm Neuralitic Systems.
The fund has also invested in travel service WorldMate and Outlook e-mail service Xobni, which creates profiles for each person that sends e-mails to you.