CTS Secures $8 Million in Series B Funding Led by Steamboat Ventures

HONG KONG & LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CTS Media (“Click To See Media”), the leading provider of in-stream video advertising technology and services, today announced that it has secured $8 million in Series B funding. The round was led by a US$5 million investment from Steamboat Ventures, a venture capital firm affiliated with The Walt Disney Company. Concurrent with the investment, Benjamin Xu, Managing Director of Steamboat Ventures, has joined CTS’ Board of Directors. The venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson co-invested in the round, together with returning investor Sequoia Capital China, which led the Series A funding.

“We are gratified by Steamboat’s vote of confidence in our technology and service capabilities and the enormous opportunity our business model represents”

The new funds will enable CTS to accelerate its growth and expand its business model, bringing the company’s robust and innovative technology and services to a wider range of Internet video content providers, broadcasters, advertisers and consumers.

“Advertising through in-stream video is an increasingly important tool for advertisers for brand and product marketing in Asia and across the globe, and CTS has the innovative technology and services to drive explosive growth in this area,” said Xu. “Given its leading edge technology, strong management team and unmatched partner relationships, the company is ideally positioned to accelerate its expansion.”

"We are gratified by Steamboat’s vote of confidence in our technology and service capabilities and the enormous opportunity our business model represents,” said Steve Liu, CTO and Co-Founder of CTS. “CTS has worked to develop a technology platform that speaks directly to user experience and advertising effectiveness by giving advertisers more efficient ways to target users, and more comprehensive ways to monitor campaign performance, while at the same time enabling content providers to deliver seamless integration of advertising into broadband video and audio. We look forward to developing this technology platform further following this Series B funding.”

The latest round brings CTS’ total funding to approximately US$11 million.

About Steamboat Ventures

With offices in Los Angeles, Shanghai and Hong Kong, Steamboat Ventures is a global venture capital fund that invests in digital media, consumer and technology companies in the U.S. and Asia. Steamboat Ventures pursues a distinctive investment strategy, cultivating investment opportunities that are simultaneously financially promising and also possess the potential to have significant strategic interest to The Walt Disney Company. Founded in 2000, Steamboat Ventures has invested in a range of leading digital media and consumer technology companies, including: Fastclick (acquired by VCLK), Iridigm Display Corporation (acquired by QCOM), Pure Digital Technologies, Quigo Technologies, Move Networks, 56.com, and UUSee. For more information, please visit www.steamboatvc.com.

About CTS Media

CTS Media, founded in 2006, provides technology and services that enable in-stream video advertisements by inserting advertisement clips into the beginning, middle or end of a video program. CTS serves as an advertising agent between Internet video content providers (CPs) and advertising clients or their traditional advertising agencies. As the exclusive advertising platform provider to China's largest IPTV operator, BesTV, CTS has gained exclusive rights to BesTV's advertising inventory. For more information, please visit www.clicktosee.com.