Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies Inc., an advertising startup with technology that aims to automate celebrity endorsement deals, said Tuesday it raised $20 million in a third venture funding round.
Brand Affinity was started in 2007 by local technology startup veterans Ryan and Chad Steelberg. The company projects to double its sales this year to around $30 million.
It runs a specialized database that hooks up advertisers and marketers with celebrities and athletes in order to do endorsement deals. The company has some 38,000 celebrities and sports figures in its database.
Ryan Steelberg is chief executive officer and brother Chad Steelberg is chief technology officer.
The latest money is set to be used to build out what the company calls netBAT, a new service geared toward consumers. It’s also set to go toward expanding the company’s celebrity endorsement database.
The round was led by Corona del Mar’s Miramar Venture Partners, along with existing investors Newport Coast Investments, RimLight Capital, Fulcrum Venture Capital, and the Netherland’s Ad Pepper Media International NV.
Another new investor: the Ueberroth family, which invested via its CGI Opportunity Fund. Peter Ueberroth is managing director of Newport Beach-based private equity firm Contrarian Group Inc.
The Steelberg brothers also expanded their stake through their family investment fund, Newport Coast Investments, which they started in 1999.
BAT has raised some $26 million to date.
The Steelbergs, who were raised in Newport Beach, have a reputation for starting technology companies and selling them at their peaks.
Before starting Brand Affinity, the Stellbergs’ most recent venture was dMarc Broadcasting Inc., which was shut down by parent company Google Inc. in 2008.
Started in 2002, dMarc offered software and computers to radio stations that wanted to send targeted messages to listeners via radio waves.
The system allowed stations to more easily schedule and deliver ads and keep track of when they air.
In 2006, Google paid an initial $102 million for dMarc, with provisions that it could pay up to about $1.2 billion if goals were met.
Google ended up paying around $400 million in total, according to a spokeswoman.
Google decided at some point to shut down an unprofitable part of its radio advertising business that was built around technology from dMarc.
Google still owns dMarc’s patents and uses its technology
for things like Google TV.
