Anzu completes $48 million Series B

Tel Aviv, Israel-based in-game ad company Anzu today announced  a $48 million Series B funding round, bringing its total funding to $65 million. 

The funding round was led by Emmis Corporation, with additional investments from PayPal Ventures, Evolution, Simon Equity Partners, and Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund. Existing investors include Sony Innovation Fund, NBCUniversal, WPP, Bitkraft, Samsung Next, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) Ventures, Axel Springer and Marquee Ventures.

Anzu said in a blog post that early investors in the company got the chance to exit with a 10x valuation increase thanks to this Series B round. The company didn’t specify the current valuation. 

“We are thrilled to close our Series B funding round and bring some exciting new investors on board,” said Itamar Benedy, Co-Founder and CEO of Anzu. “We are confident that in-game advertising has the potential to be a multi-billion dollar market, and Anzu is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this huge opportunity. Over the past year, we have achieved some significant milestones towards our vision, and have connected with more exclusive AAA games and premium content, expanded our measurement capabilities for advertisers, and secured patents for our unique intellectual property.”

Anzu said it is also converting SAFE notes given to a few early investors, which the company declined to identify, as part of the Series B.

Anzu, which has a headcount of around 100 today, plans to use the funding to continue building its global leadership team. The company will also seek to grow its US footprint by developing teams across the country. Additionally, the funding will allow Anzu to remain independent and fully focus on its mission to make advertising in games better.

“In-game advertising is ready to become the next major advertising category as marketers connect their brands with billions of cloud, PC, console, and mobile gamers worldwide. We look forward to partnering with Anzu as it delivers the technology and business system to make in-game advertising a large part of every marketer’s media buying plans, said Emmis Corporation Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Smulyan.

At the beginning of this year, Anzu announced that it has been granted a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its new technology for ad tracking.