Information Arbitrage: Buddy Media: $6.5MM and Off to the Races

It was just announced that one of my portfolio companies, Buddy Media, raised a $6.5 million Series B round led by my friends at Softbank Capital. Sometimes in the life of an investor things just feel right, and this company, its business model and its partners feel just right. From the time I got involved with Mike Lazerow and the Buddy Media team I've been impressed with their combination of vision, a bias towards action and cold-nosed pragmatism. And I've had the privilege of being in the midst of all this excitement from my seat on the Board. From the time we completed the Series A round it has been a whirlwind, closing strategic deals with applications developers, commercial deals with marquee advertisers and ad agencies and recruiting top people to accelerate growth. These were heady times.

Then it became clear the Buddy Media should pick one of two paths: do a strategic deal with a large media company or raise another round of capital, build out the ad network and blow things out. Over a six-week period the company received two offers and five term sheets from great firms. And after much deliberation, Mike and the Board all agreed that raising the additional capital, building the business and executing against the vision was the right way to go. We were fortunate enough to have gotten the interest and support of two great venture firms, Softbank and Greycroft Partners, in addition to myself and 13 of my fellow Series A investors who decided to re-up for the Series B. Quite frankly, it was a no-brainer. Further, two of my friends from Softbank, Eric Hippeau and Karin Klein, will be joining Mike and I on the Board. It should make for some exciting, productive Board meetings.

Buddy Media serves an important purpose: helping advertisers and their agencies best access, activate and monetize the communities on social networks. And with Acebucks as a rapidly-growing loyalty program, we look forward to driving value to our clients while building the ubiquity of Acebucks. The market has spoken loud and clear during Buddy Media's relatively short life: it is creating lots of value for its clients. And as long as we never lose sight of this goal, Mike's vision of Buddy Media's future will become reality.