Updated
Consorte Media, a niche ad network targeting the increasing number of Hispanics online, has raised $7 million in its second round of financing.
While Latin America is slowly getting online, the overall Hispanic market on the web, estimated to be at around 20 million consumers, has been getting significant attention. In August, Batanga, a Hispanic entertainment portal, raised $30 million. In September, Wamba, a social network for Latin America, raised 3 million Euro, and Sienna Ventures has been building a $100 million fund to invest in Hispanic-focused companies.
The investment in San Francisco’s Consorte, which has recently added two former Univision sales directors to its team, is yet another example of interest in this market. It also indicates the momentum behind niche ad networks, spurned on by the success of Glam and Federated Media. The idea behind niche ad networks is that, unlike monoliths like AdSense, the more agile companies can bring extensive knowledge of a smaller corner of the web to attract content sites that fit the mold and deliver them directly to advertisers. Consorte has signed up around 300 Hispanic content sites that, together, deliver a billion impressions per month. Its customers include Best Buy and Monster.
Sutter Hill Ventures led the round, which included follow up funding from Mayfield Fund.
[Updated: The original post said that Consorte had around 50 sites in its network. That number is now 300]
