Pudding raises $8M in quest to place ads into phone conversations

Pudding Media announced it raised $8 million in its first round of venture funding. VC firms Opus Capital and BRM Capital led the round.
Pudding, which offers technology designed to deliver ads based on phone conversations, said it will use the funding to expand its lineup of “advertising solutions” to cover mobile carriers, VoIP operators and Web-voice applications.
“We see an opportunity to improve profitability for all voice providers by using effective targeted advertising to monetize all forms of voice communication,” said Ariel Maislos, Pudding’s CEO and co-founder. “Pudding Media addresses the major concerns of voice providers looking to add advertising revenue by providing turnkey advertising solutions.”
According to Pudding, the company’s technology “brings targeted, relevant and timely advertising to voice services, and opens new advertising real estate that allows placement of multi-modal advertising for voice providers. By combining placement of voice, text and display ads with a unique contextual targeting engine, Pudding Media enables an effective transition in ad-supported calling plans by voice providers.”
Pudding enters an already diverse playground. Some carriers, such as Virgin Mobile USA Inc., are experimenting with offering ads in exchange for airtime. Other carriers, such as Sprint Nextel Corp., are selling ad space on their wireless Web pages.
However, no major player has yet tested the marriage of voice services and advertisements.