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Mobile ad tech firm AppOnboard secures $15 million investment

Total funding raised to date stands at $20 million

Mobile ad tech firm AppOnboard secures $15 million investment

Mobile ad tech company AppOnboard has secured $15 million in Series A funding to develop its app demo tech.

The California firm provides tools for for fully-fledged gaming experiences within an ad, letting users preview a title within a mobile game or app.

AppOnboard hopes to use the latest funding to further develop the tech and get it into the hands of more studios.

The company claims to have generated one billion interactions from its “full-fidelity demos” to date.

All onboard

The investment round was led by Korea Investment Partners and also included Mirae Asset Management, Mantaray, MTG, and Runa Capita. They join existing investors London Venture Partners, Troy Capital Partners, and Ophir Capital Group.

The round brings total investment raised by the company to $20 million, after it previously raised $4 million in May 2017.

“Opportunities to completely change the way mobile users discover content do not come around often,” said AppOnboard CEO Jonathan Zweig, who previously founded ads company AdColony.

“We spent two years building the technology for the simple yet profound concept of a demo, and now we are beyond excited to get our patent-pending demo technology into the hands of all mobile apps developers around the worldwide.”

Speaking to PocketGamer.biz, AppOnboard Director of Business Development Katie Weinstock said that the company’s full fidelity demos are a mirror representation of apps and games, rather than being recreated through HTML.

“Our goal is to allow users to try out an app or game in the highest quality possible and in a way that accurately shows what that app is like,” she said.

“Since our demos look like the apps, we are able to ‘pre-qualify’ users for the developer and also provide back insights to product and development teams.”

Expansion plans

The AppOnboard team currently consists of more than 40 people, but AppOnboard plans to expand to between 75 and 100 employees over the next 12 months across its product, engineering and commercial teams.

Weinstock said the funding will help the company expand its growth plans globally and get its tools into developers’ hands faster.

“With the increasing complexities and file sizes of mobile apps and games on the App Store, it is becoming harder for developers to create and deliver ‘preview’ experiences to end users on mobile,” said Weinstock

“Our demos allow developers to quickly iterate and create high-end, bite-sized versions that users can try in other mobile apps and games.

“With over five million apps out there and less emphasis on app store rankings on iOS, our full-fidelity demos help developers get their apps discovered, attain higher quality users over time, and generate product insights that can help make their products better.”


Head of Content

Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.