Van den Ende & Deitmers takes stake in smartclip

The venture capital firm Van den Ende & Deitmers has taken a substantial minority stake in smartclip, the first dedicated online video advertising network in Germany. With over 150 million professionally produced videoviews per month from over 300 premium publishers, the network offers a platform that enables advertisers and agencies to expand their TV campaigns to the Internet. smartclip offers advertisers and agencies ‘television-like’ inventory and reach, an exclusive network of premium video content, standardised technical ad formats with potential for maximum creativity and detailed cross-publisher video ad reporting.
In addition, smartclip offers premium content owners and publishers the advantage of turnkey solutions to deliver and monetise their digital video content. The company was founded early 2008 by ex-Lycos executives Jean-Pierre Fumagalli and Roland Schaber, who have built the company in cooperation with the well respected German Internet entrepreneur Thomas Falk, who is chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Van den Ende & Deitmers is the venture capital firm of Endemol founder Joop van den Ende and former Endemol Executive Board member Hubert Deitmers. Despite the current economical environment, the European internet advertising market continues to grow in 2009 and video advertising in particular is booming. Revenue is estimated to reach around EUR 1 billion in Europe by 2012 caused by TV ad budgets shifting online Jean-Pierre Fumagalli, CEO smartclip: “The funds and expertise of Van den Ende & Deitmers will accelerate our growth strategy to build a significant presence in the key European countries. After becoming market leader in Germany in a very short time, smartclip will be opening an office in London to enter the UK market. The network has already taken its first publishers under contract there. The UK is an incredibly important internet advertising market – and we’re very excited to be bringing smartclip here.”

Hubert Deitmers, managing partner and co-founder of Van den Ende & Deitmers: “smartclip and its team is a great example of entrepreneurship with strong panEuropean ambitions. It has rapidly emerged as a major player in the field of video advertising in the largest Internet and advertising market in Europe. smartclip’s network and monetization possibilities help both advertisers and publishers increasing the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. We are keen on helping smartclip expand its geographic footprint via organic growth, proprietary platform development and selective content or corporate acquisitions. Currently smartclip is our second portfolio company headquarted outside the Netherlands.”

About smartclip (www.smartclip.com)
smartclip is the market-leading online video advertising network in Germany. Premium portals, agencies and advertisers use smartclip to publish and distribute video ads. With more than 150 million professionally created video views per month at more than 300 premium publishers, the network offers significant reach to its clients – advertisers and agencies. smartclip has offices in Hamburg and Düsseldorf and is currently expanding into other European markets.