• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 21, 2008

Mobile ad network AdMob has raised $15.7 million in a third round of funding led by Sequoia Capital's Growth Fund that included existing investor Accel Partners. That brings the total AdMob has raised to date to $34.3 million.

Founded in 2006, the San Mateo, Calif.-based company says it has more than tripled the number of ads served on its network in the last year to 4.5 billion as of September. It now sells banner and text ads on 6,000 mobile sites, and handles mobile campaigns for advertisers including Cover Girl, Toshiba and Comedy Central.

With the latest funding, AdMob plans to expand worldwide operations by hiring local staff in key markets including Western Europe, India, South Africa and Japan. It will also invest further in its mobile ad platform and expand its offerings for advertisers and publishers.

The funding is a vote of confidence by Sequoia, which recently made a widely reported presentation to portfolio company CEOs warning of the dire consequences of the financial and economic crisis for inefficiently run Internet startups.

One slide in the firm's "R.I.P. Good Times" presentation, showing a decline in mobile subscriber growth and handset sales in the last year, states that "mobile is not immune" from the downturn. But Sequoia partner Jim Goetz sounded a more positive note in a statement announcing the AdMob funding.

"AdMob is well capitalized and has achieved cash flow positive results, giving them a unique opportunity in this difficult economic climate to aggressively capture market share," he said. "They have some of the same qualities that we saw in Google, Yahoo, YouTube and Apple, including their exceptional team and powerful technology platform."

Among recent initiatives, AdMob has launched a free analytics service for mobile sites and a set of iPhone-specific ad units. The company declined to disclose any financial figures.