• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 22, 2010

Better Advertising has raised $9.5 million, the behavioral ad regulation start-up said Monday. Cofounded by former About.com CEO Scott Meyer, Better Advertising's platform helps online advertisers and publishers show their compliance with industry ad-targeting guidelines. Private equity firm Warburg Pincus led the round, which also included investment from every member of the company's management team, including Meyer.

Meyer said the company plans to use the capital to scale its "assurance platform," and develop similar programs for consumers, advertisers, and publishers. "This funding will enable us to work with even more companies in delivering on the promise of full industry implementation of the Self-Regulatory Principles and meaningful transparency in interactive media," said Meyer.

The start-up is designated as an "approved provider" of compliance services for the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising of the Digital Advertising Alliance. This includes the ability to deliver the "advertising option icon" on behalf of companies that are participating in the self-regulatory program.

The company's assurance platform is presently operating at scale, delivering notice with multiple billions of advertising impressions every month across various online brands.

Better Advertising was incubated inside of Warburg Pincus in 2009 while Meyer was an entrepreneur in residence at the firm. Better Advertising launched in July 2009, and is working closely with agencies, networks, data providers, and publishers on behalf of brand clients. The company also works directly with dozens of brands, which are already using its assurance platform as a standard method to provide evidence of compliance with its principles, according to Meyer.