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German Ad Exchange, AdScale, Raises Five Million Euro In New Funding

Germany's leading ad exchange, Adscale, announced today that it has raised new funding from French investment firm, TIME Equity Partners. The deal is said to be in excess of five million euro, and will give TIME Investor a minor stakehold in Adscale. The German ad trading platform has been growing rapidly since its launch in 2007, and now serves over six billion ad impressions per month. The exchange is also used by over thirty media buying agencies in the German market. The investment is significant for Europe's biggest display market, as automated ad trading is set to increase signifcantly there in the next tweleve months. With display advertising moving away from manual media I/O buying, Adscale is well placed to benefit. It is thought the the new investment will be used to build out new platform features and expand into other European markets.

Munich, June 1st 2010. AdScale, the leading marketplace for online advertising in Germany, has announced today the successful conclusion of the financing for its expansion in continental Europe. TIME Investors, a Paris based specialized investment firm providing strategic support to European Telecom, Internet, Media mid-sized companies, is investing more than 5 million euros in AdScale (www.adscale.de) for a minority shareholding and is thus expanding the circle of existing investors, beyond the European Founders Fund and Holtzbrinck Ventures.

Matthias Pantke, managing director and spokesman for AdScale’s management: “We are delighted about the investment of TIME Investors, which is proof of the great potential that AdScale holds in store. The additional financial means, combined with the expertise brought by Time Equity Partners, management Company of Time Investors, will give us the opportunity to further expand Adscale’s product portfolio and geographical reach. We will introduce further advertising formats and booking options to our business model this year. In this way we will strengthen our position as a leading online advertising marketplace in Europe.”

Jean-Luc Cyrot, partner at TIME Equity Partners, management company of TIME Investors : “It is our main goal to operate at the heart of the digital revolution. With a very solid business model, AdScale has experienced stellar growth thanks to an impressive and highly scalable online advertising platform that can be leveraged on a pan-European footprint. And most of all, AdScale is led by an excellent and visionary management team with which we look forward to partnering. The aim of our investment is to substantially support the growth of the company over the coming years.”

Sven Achter, partner at Holtzbrinck Ventures: “AdScale has proven from the very start how well the business model can work in Germany. Within a very short time frame the company has developed into the leading and a profitable marketplace for online advertising in Germany with a triple digit growth rate. We are convinced that the future will belong more and more to the online advertising marketplaces and are looking forward to further expanding the market leadership of AdScale together with TIME Equity Partners.“

About AdScale

AdScale is the leading marketplace for online advertising in Germany, which brings together advertisers, media agencies and publishers. Via AdScale, advertisers, advertising agencies and website publishers buy and sell video, display and text advertisements.

The company offers a portfolio that currently comprises over 3,500 websites of all sizes, which advertisers can book self-contained via a single platform. As a real time and a transparent platform, AdScale offers publishers and marketers a tool for controlling inventory use. According to comScore, AdScale has achieved a reach in Germany of almost two thirds of all internet users (64.9 percent or 35.1 million unique users in April 2010) in the online display sector and delivers nearly 8 billion ad impressions a month in Germany. Advertising spaces are auctioned for every ad impression. As such AdScale achieves fair prices while at the same time creating transparency. Launched in September 2007, AdScale was founded by Klaus von Doemming and Stephan Kern. Since the beginning of 2008 the management has also been reinforced by Matthias Pantke. Further information can be found online at www.adscale.de.

About TIME Equity Partners

TIME Equity Partners advises and manages a 100€m equity allocation granted to TIME Investors by four European entrepreneurs through their joint company Yam Invest NV.

TIME Equity Partners is led by Henri de Bodinat, Jean-Stéphane Bonneton and Jean-Luc Cyrot, who have a strong experience in the Telecom, Internet, Media sectors. TIME Equity Partners focuses on companies with a proven business model and profitability and high quality management team, it provides the funds necessary to finance organic or external growth. TIME Equity Partners is above all a strategic partner for the management, thanks to the proven experience and expertise of its partners, both in investing, consulting, creating and managing Telecom / Internet / Media companies.