• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, February 10, 2014

"Programmatic direct" technology provider iSocket on Monday announced it has raised $5 million in a new funding round led by Time Warner Investments. Other investors include Condé Nast, R&R Venture Partners and Vivi Nevo.

Additionally, the company has announced the appointment of Kevin McCabe as vice president of business development. McCabe is a former Microsoft executive, where he worked on the demand-side for the Microsoft Advertising Exchange and Microsoft's Programmatic Direct channel.

Programmatic direct is the application of advertising technology to the direct buying process. As the deals happening are still direct -- as opposed to being facilitated by artificial intelligence, like they are on exchanges -- programmatic direct companies like iSocket tout their ability to manage more "premium" inventory.

“Today, the majority of display, mobile and video advertising spend goes to premium inventory that is sold directly, at guaranteed fixed prices,” stated Rachel Lam, senior vice president and group managing director, Time Warner Investments. Lam added that iSocket is "uniquely positioned to help advertisers and publishers automate this process," as the company was an early proponent of programmatic direct.

Richard Jalichandra, iSocket's CEO, stated, "We’re very pleased to have Time Warner and Condé Nast, two of the biggest names in publishing, endorsing our model for advertising sales." Jalichandra took over as CEO of iSocket in October 2013.

In a statement, Jalichandra said the company will "primarily" use the $5 million to bolster its new platform, which lets publishers put fixed-price inventory up for sale which advertisers can then browse.