Crowdsourced Advertising Startup Trada Raises $9M in Funding

The crowdsourced online marketing company was set to announce Thursday that it had closed a $9 million Series D financing round from Foundry Group and Google Venture. The two investors had previously invested a combined $7.95 million in the company.

Trada CEO Niel Robertson said the new funding comes after a year of rapid growth for the company. Its head count grew from 30 to nearly 100 employees in 2011 while its total advertiser budget running in the marketplace expanded by 700 percent. While Trada’s largest advertiser had a monthly budget of $35,000 a month at the start of 2011, its biggest advertiser now has a monthly budget of $500,000, he said.

The company launched three years ago as a supplier of search advertising services to SMBs that Robertson felt were left behind in the paid search market. Instead of needing tools or a better interface, he said, they needed human expertise.

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/crowdsourced-advertising-startup-trada-raises-9m-funding-137329