Moloco Inc., a tech-driven advertising solutions company, reported that it had completed its Series C funding, successfully becoming a unicorn. The venture capital industry uses the term ‘unicorn’ to describe a startup whose enterprise value has reached over 1.12 trillion won ($1 billion). Moloco’s latest funding round obtained 22.5 billion won ($20 million) thanks to the Shinhan-Smilegate Global Fund No. 1.
Moreover, the South Korean venture capital companies Shinhan GIB and Smilegate Investment established the aforementioned private equity fund for Moloco. In addition to Shinhan GIB and Smilegate Investment, some of Moloco’s significant investors include Krafton, Samsung Investment, and SK Telecom. As a result of the funding, Moloco became the first company established by a Korean to achieve a unicorn status among the Silicon Valley-based startups.
AI-Powered, Data-Driven Ad Solutions
Founded in 2013, Moloco provides machine learning and programmatic advertising solutions, helping mobile businesses optimize their advertising and marketing programs. According to Moloco Founder Ahn Ikk-Jin, the company enables mobile companies to flourish by providing advanced advertising algorithms that prompt consumers to make more purchases. Ahn also applied his previous engineering experiences while working for Google and Youtube to establish Moloco.
Besides having its headquarters in Silicon Valley, the company also has offices located around the world. In particular, Moloco has offices in Seoul, Jakarta, London, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, and Tokyo. Moloco’s large-scale data analysis technology allows users to increase profit through online personalized advertisements based on customer data. Furthermore, the ad-tech startup supports two main products, the Moloco Cloud and the Moloco Engine.
“Whether for programmatic user acquisition or intelligent monetization, for in-house control of their data or as a fully managed service, Moloco’s machine learning-powered solutions give mobile businesses the edge they need,” said a Managing Director at Samsung Venture Investment Corporation. The Samsung Venture official also praised Moloco for its unique and unparalleled data-driven mobile advertising industry technologies.
In recent years, Moloco has experienced significant growth alongside its continuous business expansion. Since 2018, the company has managed data from more than 100 trillion operations while processing over 10 billion ads per month. Some of the company’s most notable customers include Disney, Netmarble, and Nexon. During the past four years, Moloco recorded an average 180% annual growth rate. Moloco’s 2021 first-quarter sales also expect to log a 450 billion won ($400 million) revenue, doubling 2020’s income around the same time.
