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Technology platform Gumball, the company behind the podcast network Headgum, has announced it has closed a $10 million Series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures and Good Friends.
Bringing total funding to $12 million, the round also includes investment from Craft Ventures, Vertical Venture Partners, Animal Capital, Calm Ventures, Gaingels, and Riverside Ventures.
Gumball is a technology marketplace for host-read podcast ads. Gumball’s current inventory includes 100s of podcasts, including Headgum Original shows, podcasts within the Headgum Network, and hundreds of independent podcasters and content creators.
“The host-read ad is the most valuable and powerful asset in podcasting, providing authentic, intimate, and endorsement-level messages natively within targeted content,” said Marty Michael, CEO. “Despite being equally loved by brands, listeners, and talent, the way campaigns are bought, planned, executed, and tracked is antiquated, gated, and largely unchanged since the dawn of podcasting. Gumball turbo-boosts the medium with a solution that provides the kind of scale and efficiency of programmatic advertising. Today’s funding will allow us to further invest in the technology and attract independent talent wishing to take advantage of this impactful marketing discipline.”