AdWerx attracts investment

Real estate advertising technology company AdWerx, which spun out of ReverbNation in January, announced that it has attracted an investment from an expert in online advertising. The amount of funding wasn’t disclosed.

Durham-based AdWerx said Wednesday that Joe Zawadzki, the CEO of privately held MediaMath, a digital marketing technology company with more than 600 employees, has invested in the business through his investment company, Occam’s Razor.

“MediaMath is a significant player in this space,” said AdWerx CEO Jed Carlson. “When someone like Joe votes with his wallet ... I feel that it’s validating.”

Carlson said the infusion of cash will be used “to fuel the growth plans we have,” but he declined to go into specifics.

Today the company has 32 employees, up from 21 when it spun out of ReverbNation at the start of this year. The company anticipates that it will have ebetween 50 and 55 workers by the end of year, Carlson said.

AdWerx’s digital advertising platform has attracted more than 15,000 real estate agents nationwide. It’s designed to make it easy for real estate agents to post basic online awareness ads that highlight the agents and their contact information, typically including a photo and a slogan.

Agents pay anywhere from $120 to more than $1,000 per quarter for the service, which uses “behavioral targeting” to target individuals whose online browsing indicates they may be interested in buying a home.

Carlson said the company plans to expand into a new market before the end of the year.

This story was originally published June 3, 2015 at 11:21 AM with the headline "AdWerx attracts investment."