モバイルマネタイズプラットフォームのButton、シリーズBで2,000万ドル調達
Button, the leading platform powering partnerships across the mobile economy, today announced it has closed a $20 million Series B financing round led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from returning investors Redpoint, DCM, and Greycroft. The Button Marketplace makes it possible for companies to easily partner with one another on mobile, providing a beneficial experience for all: enhances the user’s experience, allows Publishers to build transactional revenue streams, and allows Merchants to establish new forms of acquisition and re-engagement in mobile. Leading brands on the platform include eBay, Jet, Uber, Hotels.com, and many others. This latest round of funding will help accelerate the company’s explosive growth through investment in the development of the platform, international expansion, new strategic partnerships, and talent acquisition.
Button’s technology, which can be implemented within hours and utilized for years, enables partnerships between the world’s leading mobile brands across a variety of industries, creating meaningful revenue streams for publishers and driving user acquisition for merchants. Merchants in the Button Marketplace offer links or buttons on Publishers’ mobile sites or native apps — and the leading categories within the Button Marketplace are travel, meta-search, loyalty, local, and content.
Since being founded in 2014, Button has seen explosive revenue growth and expanded its two-sided Marketplace to feature many of the world’s leading digital brands including Groupon, Jet, Boxed, StubHub, and Expedia Inc’s Hotels.com as Merchants, and Publishers including digital media giants Condé Nast, AOL, and Huffington Post; loyalty app Ibotta; travel platform GoEuro; and the Foursquare City Guide app. Button partners Hotels.com, Resy, Ibotta, and more are serving as both Publishers and Merchants within the Button Marketplace.
“We are excited to partner with Mike and the Button team to help them achieve their goal of creating a transactional marketplace that is beneficial to all,” said Jared Hyatt, an investor at Norwest Venture Partners. “The decline of traditional advertising in mobile proves publishers need new and creative ways to monetize their content, and their users. Button’s Marketplace allows them to do this with a phenomenal user experience. By giving users the consumption experience they want, publishers can generate meaningful new revenue for their businesses.”
As phones have evolved into more utility-oriented devices that are always connected and loaded with payment details, we are only taps away from making a purchase at any moment. Button is bringing commerce closer to the point of consumer intent, bridging the gap between where consumers spend time and where they spend money. Button’s platform is becoming one of the strongest performing channels for acquisition in mobile, with Button’s conversion rates being four times higher than traditional mobile acquisition channels at a cost of 1/3 that of app advertising channels. For Publishers, a recent case study also showed that the integration of a Button within a mobile app or site not only introduces a durable revenue stream, but increases user engagement by over 10 percent.
“With time spent on mobile vastly outpacing that of desktop and the mobile app commerce economy growing faster than any other channel at 70 percent year-over-year, Button is revolutionizing the way publishers and merchants connect,” stated Michael Jaconi, Co-Founder and CEO of Button. “Mobile engineering resources are overburdened, and Button gives companies the power to build the best mobile experiences for giving users what they want — whether that’s the booking of a room, a ride to a restaurant, or a great deal at a popular retailer. We are convinced that with the growth of mobile and the adoption of spending through this form factor globally that we’re playing a significant role in what’s likely to be the biggest trend we’ve witnessed to date in the digital era.”
Operating in New York and San Francisco, the company employs 40 people and was recognized by Crain’s New York as the Best Place to Work in New York City. To learn more about Button, visit www.usebutton.com.
