Commentary

PebblePost Uses $25M Funding To Tie Programmatic Closely With Direct Mail

PebblePost, which created programmatic direct mail, recently closed a $25 million series C funding round led by Advance Venture Partners (AVP).

The company will use the funding to tie direct mail more tightly with programmatic. It’s unclear whether the strategy will work, but the company will try by creating closer ties with data management platform partners and integrations with demand-side platforms.

AVP joins prior investors RRE Ventures, Greycroft, Tribeca Venture Partners, strategic investors, angel investors, and others in the digital media space.

David ibnAle, founding and managing partner at AVP, will join the PebblePost board of directors. The firm was built in partnership with Advance Publications, the owner of Condé Nast and one of the largest shareholders of media companies such as Charter Cable, Discovery Communications, and Reddit, according to ibnAle’s LinkedIn page.

advertisement

advertisement

PebblePost analyzes the activity of consumers online and then sends them direct mail pieces. It links the two types of advertising to provide traditional programmatic direct mail options.

Last summer, PebblePost raised $47 million in a combination of equity and debt, which included a $15 million series B round previously raised. In May 2017, the company closed $5 million in series A funding, and prior to that, $3 million in a seed round.

The programmatic direct mail uses “targeting, data science, A/B testing, algorithmic optimization, attribution and quantitative analysis that they expect from digital,” explains PebblePost’s Founder and CEO Lewis Gersh. “Marketers define their KPIs as they would with a digital campaign.

The technology works by using online intent triggers and then sending the consumer a form of printed personalized direct mail piece.

PebblePost works with hundreds of brands across categories including direct-to-consumer, traditional retail and travel. Boxed.com has worked with PebblePost for more than two years to target new customers to its site as well as existing customers. Other brands that have seen success with PebblePost include Haven Life, Dermstore, and Parachute Home, according to the company.

Next story loading loading..