Pubmatic CRO Rob Jonas exits to join Factual
Just months after laying off 20 per cent of its workforce, Pubmatic’s global chief revenue officer Rob Jonas has exited the company taking the role of senior vice president of revenue at data and analytics firm Factual, with no direct replacement for the C-level role.
Pubmatic has confirmed with The Drum that Jonas’ role, which he occupied since late 2013, will “be assumed by a strong layer of regional vice presidents who now report directly to Kirk McDonald, PubMatic’s president”.
The news follows two waves of layoffs that saw it reduce its numbers from circa 600 to 450. The company, an ad tech outfit that aims to help publishers boost their revenue, claims that its focus would now be on working with premium publishers, as opposed to long-tail content providers.
A key area of focus for Pubmatic will be to help publishers improve the monetisation of their audience on mobile devices, as well as promoting its software that encourages more direct relationships between media owners and buyers, such as private marketplaces.
Jonas initially joined Pubmatic as managing director for EMEA and Asia Pacific (Bill Swanson is now Pubmatic VP for EMEA), before taking the C-level role later that year, with the ad tech outfit reportedly seeking an exit – either via way of an initial public offering (IPO), or buyout, later that year - although this has yet to materialise. This followed a huge investment round of $45m in funding back in 2012.
Jonas, who has served in senior positions at Google, Yahoo and InMobi, assumes the newly-created role at Factual, and is understood to be based in San Francisco. His appointment as senior vice president of revenue comes just two months after Factual announced $35m in Series B funding, with the location-based targeting firm claiming it would use the cash injection to fuel its revenue growth.
Factual helps advertisers hone their mobile advertising campaigns, and has partnerships with some of the digital industry’s largest names, such as Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft.