Google invests in TV ad startup Invidi’s $23M round

Invidi, a company whose TV set-top box technology enables what advertisers call “addressable” advertising for television, has closed a $23 million series D funding round led by Google.

Addressable advertising is TV’s term for ads that are targetable to individual households. As Brandweek put it, “a 50-year-old man watching Lost would see a different ad than a 14-year-old girl watching the same show next door.”

NBC began offering addressable ads served by Microsoft in June of last year. Google’s investment in Invidi seems an obvious attempt to leapfrog ahead of Microsoft.

Invidi’s press release also lists several other investors: Motorola Ventures, Group M, Menlo Ventures, InterWest, and EnerTech. Google TV executive Shishir Mehrotra has joined Invidi’s board of directors.

TechCrunch reports that New York-based Invidi, founded in 2000, has distribution agreements with both Dish Network and DirecTV, and that a recent test found addressable ads 32% more effective than the same ads without targeting.

[Diagram: IPTV Magazine]