Gumball, a self-serve ad platform specializing in host-read ads for podcasts, has raised $10 million in a series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures and Good Friends, CEO Marty Michael tells Kerry.

Why it matters: The ad tech startup says it helps podcast creators and brands more easily collaborate, bringing more revenue into the rapidly growing media business.

• Podcast ad revenue reached $842 million in 2020, up from $708 million the year prior, and host-read ads represented more than half, according to the IAB 2020 U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Report.
• "The preferred ad unit by both creators and brands is the host-read ad, so the real opportunity in my eyes is to figure ... to scale it the same way that programmatic allows you to scale," Michael says.

Details: Michael declined to disclose annual revenue but said Gumball's revenue for January 2022 surpassed its total revenue for 2021 and that 2022 revenue is expected to triple 2021's total.

• This brings Gumball's total funding to $12 million, after its $2 million seed round in 2020 from USV and CollegeHumor co-founder Josh Abramson.
• Craft Ventures, Vertical Venture Partners, Animal Capital, Calm Ventures, Gaingels and Riverside Ventures also participated in the series A.
• Tech executives joining the series A included SiriusXM's Brad Smith, CRED's Kunal Shah, TCG's Eric Johnson, Momentive's Zander Lurie and SoundCloud's Kerry Trainor.
• In addition, creators Nick Wiger, Mike Mitchell, Jon Gabrus, Mano Agapion, Geoffrey James, Reilly Anspaugh, Streeter Seidell, Sarah Schneider and Casey Neistat participated.

How it works: Michael says booking host-read ads used to take three to four weeks, but Gumball can take "about 30 seconds."

• Gumball's self-serve product allows brands to search for available ad inventory based on timing and desired audience.
• More than 500 brands — including Casper, CBS and Netflix — have used the platform.

Yes, but: All Gumball's ads are host-read, but there's a mix of dynamically inserted and "baked-in" ads. As Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group, recently told Digiday, those latter ads have "tons of limitations" since they cannot be changed or targeted to individuals.

Context: Gumball was launched in 2015 within Headgum — a podcast network co-founded by Amir Blumenfeld, Jake Hurwitz and Michael, who all worked at CollegeHumor.

• Former Vimeo CTO Andrew Pile joined as Headgum's technical co-founder and CTO in 2017.
• Amir Cohen, also formerly of CollegeHumor, joined as COO in 2020.

What's next: The funding will be put toward hiring and marketing.

• The company recently hired vice president of marketing Kayla Moriarty from ViacomCBS. Plans call for 30 employees by year-end, up from 14 before fundraising began.
• The platform will soon incorporate YouTube impressions into podcasts' audience sizes.
• "Brands are going to get more reach, and creators are going to be able to sell their spots for a lot more money," Michael says. "For us, it's anywhere between [a] 20 and 50% increase based on the listening coming from YouTube."