• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 13, 2016

Performance marketing company HookLogic announced Wednesday that it received an investment round from LUMA Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount.

Jonthan Opdyke, CEO of HookLogic, told Search Marketing Daily the company will build out its technology offerings, and will open another two to three international offices in the next couple of months to support local retail partnerships. HookLogic opened an office in Paris earlier this year.

Local retail relationships easily fit into HookLogic's international model, per Opdyke. "Product ads come from the retailer's content, so as long as we can partner with retailers in a given country we can create an immediate impact and build a local model that fits globally," he said

LUMA has been openly critical of the industry in saying that there are too many companies for too few places in specific market segments. The investment firm watches consolidation closely for "unique" players, and creates LUMAScapes to follow industry leaders and bring a little clarity to what investors call a complicated industry model in advertising and technology.

The vast majority of companies in the LUMAScapes are under differentiated. It's rare the industry sees a company in a category of its own, said Sumeet Jain, general partner at LUMA Partners. "If you ask their clients, 'if you didn't work with HookLogic, which competitor would you work with?' there isn't an answer," he said. "When we see companies like that it's exciting."

Jain said HookLogic is scratching the surface when it comes to leveraging the data related to shopping activity across retailers. It's a massive opportunity, he said.

Some, like Jain, view HookLogic's advertising model as unique. It requires the retailer or brand to pay on a click, and doesn't use ad verification software or third-party tagging from the advertising. It only relies on proprietary first-party advertising data. There's no bid platform between the retailers and advertiser.

HookLogic leads in three market trends that LUMA Capital watches closely: e-commerce properties transitioning to media companies, results-driven advertising versus proxies, and mobile growth, the investment firm explains in a blog post. "In today’s overcrowded e-commerce market, the largest e-commerce retailers in the world, like Amazon and Alibaba, are generating billions of dollars in revenue outside of retail sales, namely advertising," per the post. "With first-party shopping data and site traffic with high purchase intent, retailers are effectively media companies that possess very valuable assets."

This investment follows a strong year for HookLogic. The company surpassed $100 million in sales and launched an aggressive international expansion. It also recently announced the expansion of its native ad units on mobile sites and apps of ecommerce companies like Macy's Target, Peapod, Sears, Staples, Walmart, Toys 'R Us, among others.