“I can’t think of a better way to start 2010,” said Michael Ho, President and CEO. “This round shows a significant vote of confidence in our team, our technology and our market opportunity. We are extremely excited to have the support of investors like Tech Capital, GrowthWorks and OETF.”
 
Founded in late 2008, Bering Media’s technology brings real-world targeting capabilities to the online advertising industry. Through a patent-pending privacy architecture, Bering Media allows online ads to be targeted accurately by geography, down to the neighbourhood level.

 

“This investment is a real testament to Bering Media’s team and the technology that they have systematically been focused on bringing to market.” said MaRS advisor Krista Jones, who continues to work closely with Bering Media to help accelerate their market penetration and overall business evolution “Bering Media has the potential to be a game changer in the online local advertising world.” 

This marks the first series of investments made by the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund, managed by the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation (OCGC). “We are very proud to have been chosen as the first Series A investment made by the OETF,” said Michael Ho. The OETF follows the investment made by Tech Capital Partners, approved as a qualified investor by the OCGC.
 
“Bering Media’s approach to providing neighbourhood level advertising on the Internet without infringing on individual privacy is disruptive and has the potential to become the de facto standard for geotargeting online,” said Tim Jackson, Partner, Waterloo-based Tech Capital Partners, which manages $95 million in venture capital.  “Targeting at this level is the equivalent of direct mail but until now, technology has not existed to enable this level of targeting online.”

The Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund (OETF) is a direct investment fund established in 2009 by the Province of Ontario and administered by the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation (OCGC), an agency of the Ministry of Research and Innovation. The OETF is a $250-million, five-year fund that co-invests alongside qualified investors in innovative, high-growth, private Ontario companies. The fund focuses on investments in Ontario companies in three sectors: clean technology, life sciences and advanced health technologies, and digital media and information and communications technology.

MaRS Discovery District (www.marsdd.com) is a large scale, mission driven innovation centre located in Toronto and networked across Ontario, focused on building Canada’s next generation of technology companies. MaRS works closely with entrepreneurs to grow and scale their ventures into global market leaders in life sciences and health care, information, communications and digital media technologies, cleantech, advanced materials and engineering, as well as innovative social purpose business.