Israeli startups are now aquiring each other. In 2010, I wrote about Israeli startup Afterdownload on VC Cafe, and was really impressed with what I saw. AfterDownload was almost completely bootstrapped, serving 15 million CPC ad impressions a day and found a niche for monetization that no one else was effectively addressing – download screens, in-app advertising and recommendations for related software.
Today, Carmel Ventures shared the news that AfterDownload was sold to IronForge, its Israeli partner, for $28 million. IronSource operates InstallCore, an application distribution platform managing over 100M installs per month – over 1.2 billion to date – to engaged users. Ironsource was founded in 2009 and based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ironsource has an undisclosed in
vestment by Carmel Ventures, an affiliate of the Viola Group.
In the official press release, AfterDownload Co-founder and CEO Omer Kaplan said:
“Together with ironSource, we can provide publishers and advertisers alike a more comprehensive package to maximize the download funnel”.
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
