Company plans to use $200 million in new funding to expand geographically and to strengthen its current offerings.
You & Mr Jones Inc., a provider of digital and mobile technology services for marketers, said it raised a $200 million funding round that gives it a post-money valuation of $1.3 billion.
The valuation suggests investors are buying into the company’s assertion that it can use technology to help brands more than holding companies that dominate advertising and marketing.
You & Mr Jones is also a big player in the business of helping marketers take control of digital marketing duties they once outsourced to ad agencies.
“We are starting to see the disrupters in this industry get to values that mean they’re starting to be significant companies.”
– David Jones, Founder and Chief Executive of You & Mr Jones
An ad industry veteran and a former chief executive of French ad holding company Havas, Mr. Jones formed You & Mr Jones in 2015 with the help of $350 million from investors. The company pitched itself as a “brandtech” firm, trying to signal mastery of branding and technology, a combination that Mr. Jones calls rare.
The term hasn’t caught on yet.
“The way people understand fintech or biotech, they will understand what brandtech is in a few years.”
– David Jones, Founder and Chief Executive of You & Mr Jones