IRISH MOBILE internet services company Digital Reach Group (DRG) has completed a €500,000 investment deal with Pageant Holdings to double its employees and fund the company to profitability.
DRG provides mobile advertising, app and content publishing services for media companies, advertisers and ad agencies. The company was set up nine months ago and had previously been privately funded by its management team, chief executive Colm Grealy, marketing director Kevin Foley and finance director Denis Lally.
Mr Grealy said the new investment would primarily be spent on recruitment, as well as some product development and helping the company towards break-even early next year. The company currently has 10 employees and is hiring a further 10 people in sales, operations, administration, billing and research positions.
Following the investment in DRG, Pageant Holdings will take a minority stake and its director Peter O’Grady Walshe will join the company’s board as a non-executive director. Mr Grealy’s connection to Mr O’Grady Walshe dates back to the mid-90s. Mr Grealy was co-founder of Ireland On-Line, Ireland’s first consumer internet service provider when the latter was managing director of Xtra-vision. The video rental chain sold more than 20,000 Ireland On-Line internet starter packs to customers.
DRG has two parts. Adforce is an outsourced sales force which sells ad space to Irish brands on mobile internet sites including RTÉ, Vodafone, Meteor and Bebo.
The Dublin company also develops mobile apps, including the RTÉ News Now iPhone app.
Mr Grealy said accessing the internet no longer centred on the PC, and he pointed to the popularity of the iPhone and the BlackBerry, as well as mobile operating systems.
