Singapore-based offline ad marketplace raises seed funding

Offline ads are everywhere. Photo credit: Pixabay

Singapore- and Switzerland-based startup Bid4Ad is an online marketplace for people to bid on print and outdoor ad spaces. It hopes this will simplify the process of ad buying on traditional media, which involves laboriously calling up an agent to inquire on pricing and booking slots. To fuel its ambitions, the startup has raised an angel funding round of US$732,000 from unnamed investors.

The startup did not share exact traction numbers with Tech in Asia, but said it has a network of 300 advertisers and 5,000 ad spaces across seven countries in Europe and Asia. Joining the startup as “senior advisor” is Christopher Yeo, who was the associate director of NUS Enterprise. Bid4Ad did not tell us the extent of his involvement in the company.

Many startups – like Signkick in UK, PaintAds in India, and Crossvertise in Germany – are doing offline ad marketplaces. Not in Southeast Asia though. The last high-profile attempt, EatAds, appears to have shut down.

The time may be right for someone else to take a stab at this, though it’s entering an arena with tons of competitors. One important differentiation for Bid2Ad is the ability for people to use it to buy both online and offline inventory. For example, you can buy slots on web publications and email newsletters.