SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Jul 09, 2014 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- mNectar today announced it raised $7 million in its Series A financing round from venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). mNectar is a pioneer in mobile application virtualization and cloud delivery, allowing customers to sample apps before downloading. mNectar's unique Playable technology drives higher ad revenue for app developers and higher quality users for mobile advertisers. Rick Yang, a principal from NEA's Menlo Park division, joins mNectar's Board of Directors.

"mNectar has a rare combination of everything NEA looks for when partnering with a company," said Yang. "The team's impressive background, innovative technology, product market fit, and huge market opportunity are all validated by the rapid growth of delighted customers and consumers. We are extremely excited to team up with mNectar to bring virtualized apps to the mass market."

With the millions of apps available on the App Store and Google Play, new apps have difficulty gaining large user bases with high lifetime value. mNectar's Playable platform helps app developers monetize and acquire quality users with playable ad units. Advertisers are able to vet users before paying to acquire them, ensuring high-quality users, while publishers benefit from attractive ads with high performance numbers.

"mNectar is redefining how applications are discovered and engaged with," said mNectar co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Wally Nguyen. "With the new funding, we will invest heavily in our infrastructure to continue to push the performance envelope of mobile content delivery and acceleration."

mNectar will use the investment to deepen its leadership, engineering and business teams with a focus on international expansion as the company grows its customer base worldwide. mNectar's customers include Bash Gaming: a subsidiary of GSN, Big Fish Games, Buffalo Studios, Freshplanet, GREE, King Digital, Mag Interactive, Mobile Deluxe, MobilityWare, Social Gaming Network (SGN), Storm8, Wooga, Zeptolab and Zynga.

Along with Nguyen, mNectar's founding team includes Artem Grigoryan, Chief Technology Officer and Daniel Cheng, Chief Revenue Officer. Nguyen and Grigoryan previously worked together at Panther CDN, a next-generation content delivery network. Grigoryan and Cheng worked together at Greystripe, an early ad network for mobile that delivered interactive rich media for consumer brands.

About mNectar mNectar revolutionizes mobile app discovery by allowing customers to sample apps and games before downloading. Through its proprietary streaming and virtualization technology, mNectar has proven to drive higher ad revenue for publishers and higher quality users for advertisers, compared to interstitials and video advertising. mNectar's customers include Bash Gaming: a subsidiary of GSN, Big Fish Games, Buffalo Studios, Freshplanet, GREE, King Digital, Mag Interactive, Mobile Deluxe, MobilityWare, Social Gaming Network (SGN), Storm8, Wooga, Zeptolab and Zynga. mNectar is funded by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and top app developers and is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.mnectar.com and follow mNectar on Facebook and Twitter.

About NEA New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With approximately $13 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in information technology, healthcare and energy technology companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record of successful investing includes more than 175 portfolio company IPOs and more than 300 acquisitions. In the U.S., NEA has offices in Menlo Park, CA; Boston, MA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com .

SOURCE: mNectar