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Advertising - Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Semantic Ad Firm KnewCo Gets Funding & New CEO

Gaithersburg, MD-based KnewCo has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding from Omni Capital Group. The startup also announced that Dave "Rocket" Rothenberg was named CEO. Rothenberg was CEO and founder of healthcare media's MDLinx, which was bought by a division of Sony in 2006.

The startup's former CEO Jan Velterop left the firm after a year at the helm. He explains that "With new financiers at Knewco and a new direction of the company into consumer health advertising, I resigned as CEO (though still advise and work with Knewco on matters to do with scientific publishing)" Knewco retains the engineering group in the Netherlands that was built by Velterop.

KnewCo's current ad unit is an in-text ad that look a bit like Kontera or Vibrant Media. The difference is that KnewCo is focused on the health care market, whereas Kontera and Vibrant Media do not have a strong presence in health care.

Generally, health care online advertising is a tough nut as there are abundant regulations and guidelines about where and how ads can appear. Google has a lot of trouble in health care as well. So if KnewCo can crack this market it has a green-field opportunity. But it will not be easy.

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