• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 24, 2012

DataPop is reporting that the company secured $7 million in Series B funding led by MK Capital, with participation from existing investors Rincon Venture Partners, IA Ventures, Momentum Ventures and Accelerator Ventures.

Jason Lehmbeck, CEO and co-founder of DataPop, Los Angeles, said the funding will help the company expand operations and double the size of the team in 2012, supporting an expertise in data, semantics and natural-language processing.

"Given strong customer demand, we plan to scale our Creative Science platform to serve hundreds of marketers while extending the promise of the perfect ad to new marketing channels, including mobile and social," Lehmbeck said. "In the process, we'll be doubling the size of the company this year, building on our expertise in big data, semantics and natural-language processing."

The Internet has changed everything about advertising except for the most important piece of the marketing equation -- the ad, notes Lehmbeck.

"It's a great time to find it, if you're a company seeking funding," said Chris Copland, CEO of GroupM Next. "The market will decide which ones are good, but there's no shortage of ad technology to be funded."

Marketers will see an abundance of technology platforms emerge this year. It will provide more opportunities to put brands in front of consumers looking for a specific product. One only has to look at the half-life of an Internet ad -- which is three to five days -- to see the type of technology marketers need, Lehmbeck said.

Since launching the first version of the DataPop platform in 2011, the company has supported more than $100 million in ad budgets for agency and technology partners, including RPA, IgnitionOne, OneStop Internet and 360i as well as numerous leading consumer brands in retail, travel and auto.

DataPop’s founders Lehmbeck, CEO, and John Zimmerman, COO, supported Yahoo, DoubleClick and Overture Services that led to the development of the digital marketing industry.