Outbrain Co-Founder and CEO Yaron Galai surprised observers Tuesday with a quiet announcement about $45 million in new private equity the company had received during the first quarter of 2016. That brings its total venture funding to nearly $200 million.
Galai confirmed in a blog post he had invested some of his own money into the round, but failed to disclose how much of the $45 million came from him. The company also had a profitable quarter aside from the new funding round.
“While much of the tech/finance press is busy covering the demise of unicorns and the Silicon Valley funding winter, I’m happy to announce that Outbrain has closed a new round of funding,” he said in a blog post. “This adds to our last round and brings it to a total of a $45M. As with most of our previous rounds, I am personally investing in this round as well.”
Outbrain CEO and Co-Founder Yaron Galai. Photo credit: PR
It camps off a busy quarter that saw Outbrain buy Revee and introduce a two-way chatbot geared toward content recommendations. The company also announced a partnership with CNN at Facebook’s F8 conference in April.
Revee was Outbrain’s fourth acquisition, and Galai left a strong hint that he is looking for more.
“We intend to use the new investment to continue leading on product innovation, both organically, like Outbrain for Chat, and through acquisitions like Revee,” he noted.
The short announcement, which left us with no details about other investors and terms, might be a relief for the company as it continues a long battle with Taboola in an adtech industry that is feeling the crunch more than other startup sectors during a dry funding period. Outbrain was long rumored to be heading toward an IPO, but like its rival Taboola and many other startups, seems to have backed off that strategy.
We have reached out to Outbrain for comment on more specific details about the round and will update this article if we receive a response.