Qriously Raises $3.5 Million Led By Spark Capital For Its Question-Based Mobile Ad Network

Qriously, the “question network” that’s trying to reinvent the mobile ad, has announced that it’s closed a $3.5 million Series A round led by Spark Capital. Previous backer Accel Partners also participated. This brings the total raised by the London/New York-based company to $5.1 million, having closed $1.6 million in seed funding in March 2011.

Meanwhile, Qriously says it will use the new funds to expand its U.S. and European footprint and, more interestingly, to push its new mobile ad product based on what it calls “opinion targeting” — an approach that essentially uses sentiment as the basis for targeted advertising.

When Qriously originally launched, CEO and co-founder Christopher Kahler described the startup’s mission as wanting to “democratise mass insight”. Through an SDK offered to mobile app developers, Qriously lets advertisers display questions instead of traditional mobile ads so that they can measure sentiment in realtime but also based on a user’s location. Advertisers can be ad agencies, marketers, research companies, or anybody who wants to sample the opinions and sentiment of mobile app users. A cost-per-answer revenue model is used rather than CPM or CPC.

Key to Qriously’s proposition is the User Experience it employs when displaying questions. Onscreen controls enable a participant’s sentiment on a particular issue to be measured on a sliding scale as an alternative to a purely rigid yes or no or multiple choice. Additionally, users can see how their opinion differs from the sample overall. And crucially, all of this takes place without the user leaving each app in which Qriously is deployed, which I originally likened to Apple’s iAds concept. An app within an app, if you will.

Since launch, the startup has extended its offering with products aimed at helping app developers get feedback and helping advertisers measure the effectiveness of an ad by displaying a related question after a set amount of time that it’s been on display.

Which brings us nicely to the company’s latest product, dubbed “asQvertising”, being announced along with today’s new funding. Terrible name aside, it works by displaying a question, and based on the answer given, a subsequent sentiment/interest-based targeted ad is then shown. In this way, says the company, consumers get to “self-select” mobile ads by answering questions.

To Spark Children’s Imaginations, Hullabalu Raises $1.8 Million From SV Angel, Great Oaks & Others For iPad Storytelling App

New York-based Hullabalu is launching today with a new take on children’s storytelling. Instead of digital books containing interactive bits, as is now common on iPad, this new tablet app itself is the story where the action progresses as children engage with the magical world Hullabalu introduces.The startup was founded mid-2012 by Suzanne Xie, whose first company, Weardrobe, wasacquired by iLike.com in 2009, then later sold to Google with iLike where it became Google Boutiques. She more recently launched subscription-based snacks via Lollihop, which closed in early 2012.With Hullabalu, Xie has leveraged her industry experience and connections to fund her new creation, raising $1.8 million from investors including SV Angel, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Rothenberg Ventures, Liberty City Ventures, as well as angels like Gokul Rajaram (head of ads at Facebook),Garry Tan (YC partner, Posterous co-founder), Chris McCann (President of 1-800 Flowers), Alexis Ohanian (Reddit co-founder), Brian Sugar (founder of Popsugar), Mike Greenfield (Circle of Moms founder); Fran Hauser (President of Time, Inc. Digital); Andy McLouglin (Huddle founder);Michael Levit (partner at Founders Den); Scott Tannen, Josh Spear, Soraya Darabi(Foodspotting co-founder), and others.

Xie says she was inspired to enter the world of children’s entertainment because of her own fond memories of reading sci-fi and fantasy when she was a kid — and her team feels the same way.

“But there’s not much of that that’s being told to younger kids,” she explains. “There’s obviously many reasons behind it, but obviously one of the biggest is that, traditionally, stories have always been told through text and with worlds that are rich. It’s often very hard to get that across to a young child. There’s too much text and vocabulary for them to understand,” Xie says.

“With how kids are picking up the iPad and learning how to interact with apps, we thought this was the perfect time for us to create a fantastical story,” she adds.

Hullabalu is launching as a paid iPad application ($3.99), introducing the child to an adorably crafted purple panda bear called Pan, who has adventures alongside a cast of characters in the magical world of Hullabalu.

One of the most noticeable things about the application is that it offers high-quality design and animation, the likes of which aren’t often seen in early-stage startups unless they’ve licensed content from bigger companies. There are a few exceptions, of course: Leo’s Pad from Kidaptive comes to mind, but that one has the benefit of having the president of a 3D animation studio as its CEO.

Hullabalu, meanwhile, has only a team of six, many of them young and relatively new to the industry. Xie is the sole founder, and serves as the lead writer and editor of these Hullabalu “stories.”

It should also be noted that Hullabalu isn’t purely educational in nature the way many of today’s children’s apps are — that is, it’s not core curriculum-based, though it does teach logical thinking in the sense that actions have consequences. While there is some text that appears at the bottom of the screens, it’s narrated and can be hidden from view. Simply put, the app is less about learning to read, and more about sparking children’s creativity and imagination, Xie says.

In addition to the story itself, kids can also launch a photo booth app from the homescreen for a little bit of extra fun. Going forward, Hullabalu plans to expand its lineup to include additional applications that continue the story, the first of which is due out this summer, and the next arriving later this year.

Initially, the plan is to generate revenue by charging for the app, but the eventual goal is to introduce merchandise like stuffed animals (some of which already decorate the startup’s offices), stickers, stationery, and more.