If marketers want to know how hot video ad buying and marketing technology has become, then they should listen to the advice of Deep Throat, the informant who helped reveal the Watergate Scandal: “Follow the money.” Recently, three companies in this sector have announced new rounds of funding, indicating that investors think video ad buying and marketing technology is red hot.

Vidyard Raises $18 Million

On Jan. 14, 2105, Vidyard, the global leader in video marketing and sales enablement solutions, announced it has raised $18 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from existing investors iNovia Capital, OMERS Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and SoftTech VC. The company will use the funds to fuel the growing global demand for Video Marketing Platform technology and to expand its product offerings for marketing and sales. In addition, Byron Deeter, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, joined Vidyard’s Board of Directors.

Vidyard goes beyond basic video hosting solutions by turning video content into an active tool for lead generation, qualification and customer insight. By identifying and tracking each individual viewer, Vidyard helps businesses quickly identify their most engaged prospects and improve the results of digital marketing and sales programs. Vidyard also tracks which videos best resonate with audiences and influence the greatest amount of revenue, helping marketers optimize their investments and make smarter decisions.

With the play button emerging as the most compelling call-to-action on the web, demand for video marketing technology grew exponentially in 2014. Research continues to validate that video has become an expected content medium for online audiences and the most effective way for marketers to increase conversion rates, brand affinity and purchase intent. And with Cisco reporting that video will represent 79 percent of all Internet traffic by 2018, all signs indicate that the market will continue to grow rapidly.

The Series B funding followed a momentous year for video marketing that saw hundreds of new businesses turn to Vidyard, including Act-On, Cetera Financial Group, Deltek, Dynatrace, Fiberlink – an IBM company, Honeywell, Intralinks, Square and Taulia. The company launched two new products: Vidyard Video Hubs, which gives marketers the power to easily create custom-branded video channels on their own corporate websites, and Vidyard Studio, which makes it easy for anyone in marketing and sales to create, share and track engagement in custom videos. Vidyard also expanded its integrations with leading marketing clouds and CRM solutions including Salesforce, Eloqua, Marketo, Adobe Marketing Cloud and Act-On.

Molio, Inc. Raises $3 Million in Series A Funding

On Feb. 3, 2015, Orabrush, Inc. announced it had spun off its online video marketing business as an independent company to be known as Molio, Inc. Molio is a video marketing ad technology and branding company with proprietary software for ad placement on YouTube. It launches with $3 million in Series A funding led by Greycroft Partners with additional participation from True Ventures, Subtraction Capital, Advancit Capital and Peak Ventures.

Using its intelligent software platform and advertising service, Molio delivers the right content to the right target audience leveraging the Orabrush team’s expertise in online video marketing on YouTube.  Molio’s video brand-building model, an extension of Orabrush’s YouTube “reverse marketing model,” has already produced two multi-million dollar online brands of its own with the Orabrush tongue cleaner and the Orapup dog breath brush.

Molio’s software creates multiple video variations and multiple targets for the video campaign. The Molio software determines the optimal audience who is most likely to view and convert and ensures those consumers get the right video variation served to them. Relying on a combination of advanced data analytics and programmatic advertising with highly optimized content and message delivery, Molio creates hyper-targeted campaigns that yield high levels of awareness, engagement and conversion to create and build brands online

Molio’s integrated model drives predictable, sustainable results to build brands online. The model includes the following:

• Create or Modify Existing Content – Molio writes, produces and edits videos for the YouTube platform, and can also tweak existing content and customize it for YouTube.
• Video Optimization – Molio optimizes those videos on the YouTube platform through A/B testing and deep experience and insights.
• YouTube Advertising – Molio executes and scales hyper-targeted campaigns of optimized videos by placing advertising with the Molio software. Molio’s programmatic ad bidding delivers industry leading cost per view for qualified target audiences on YouTube.

Ten clients across a number of industry verticals are currently applying Molio’s model to their brands, including Wilson Golf Duo; Poo~Pourri, a Before-You-Go Toilet Spray; Strider Sports International, the leading manufacturer and marketer of no-pedal balance bikes; and MileIQ, a smart mileage tracking app.

Pixability Completes $18 Million Series C Financing

As global brands increasingly turn to online video marketing as a key revenue generator, Pixability, a video ad buying and marketing technology company, announced on April 8, 2015, that it had closed a $18 million Series C financing round led by Jump Capital and Edison Partners, bringing total funding to $28 million. All existing investors, including Point Judith Capital and Quad Graphics, also participated in the round.

Pixability has achieved a cumulative sales compound annual growth rate of 240% over the past five years. The cost efficiencies of digital advertising are leading global brand marketers to aggressively shift media allocations, particularly to online video. Worldwide digital ad spend is projected to reach $253 billion by 2018 (up from $145 billion in 2014); with U.S. digital video ad spend projected to rise by 30.4% this year alone, reaching $7.77 billion.

“The Pixability platform has allowed us to reach our core customers and target new passionate soccer fans with data-driven video campaigns that increase awareness of our new brand positioning and bring engagement to an unprecedented level,” said Hermann Hassenstein, Global Head of Communications Planning at PUMA in a press release. “With the targeting that Pixability delivers, we are able to achieve better results through online video in a more efficient way.”

The capital will be used to:

• Rapidly expand Pixability’s patent-pending ad buying and video marketing technology platform for brands and agencies
• Expand international sales, partnerships, and business development efforts

Demand from brands for media transparency, reporting accuracy, and business attribution for online video is at an all-time high. Pixability’s programmatic optimization technology and ad buying platform streamlines campaign management, and delivers superior results against the unique business objectives of brand and agency customers, which include L’Oréal USA, PUMA, Viacom, Publicis Groupe, Mindshare and Omnicom’s Resolution Media.

Pixability has the industry’s broadest scope of YouTube management functionality. Its patent-pending software delivers extensive, enterprise-grade video advertising optimization to reduce the complexities that accompany growing online video media spend, and increase results for brand marketers. By programmatically managing video ad buys, Pixability enables media professionals to achieve transparency, streamline campaign management, reduce risk, target precisely for enhanced performance, and deliver verifiable results.

The Net, Net

With investors putting a total of $39 million into video ad buying and marketing technology, it’s time for marketers to “follow the money” and check out what these three companies have to offer.