A small South African Cape-based company, that has already instigated a dispute with the global giant Google, has now won venture capital support to develop a technology that mimics one of Google’s most successful innovations. The venture capital is being injected into Ad Dynamo International, a new operation created by the small but feisty company Entelligence. The undisclosed sum of money is coming from InVenFin, a venture capital fund formed by the Venfin group. InVenFin will take a stake in Ad Dynamo, which is led by CEO Sean Riley, the MD of Entelligence.

Its technology, like Google’s, is a pay-per-click advertising system that lets companies market themselves online. Advertisers can bid to have their adverts placed on websites that are most relevant to their products. The website owner earns a small commission from the advertiser each time a user clicks to view the advert. The venture capital cash will be used to improve its software and market it abroad.

Last year, Entelligence filed a complaint against Google with South Africa’s Competition Commission for allegedly abusing its dominance by trying to steal its customers. The clash was provoked by a contract Entelligence held to promote Telkom’s Yellow Pages website. It did that by displaying click-through adverts on websites users would visit when they ran a Google search for particular goods or services. Google charged Entelligence 60c each time a user clicked on a Yellow Pages advert. Google then raised its pay-per-click rate to R2, and apparently tried to persuade Yellow Pages to cancel its contract with Entelligence and let Google manage the account directly. Google said the accusations were without merit, and the complaint has yet to be resolved.

Google earns about 98% of all pay-per-click search advertising revenue in South Africa, and Entelligence hopes to win some of its market share through Ad Dynamo. Sean Riley said last weeek he was pleased to have attracted support from a venture capital fund as highly regarded as InVenFin. “Not only do they bring capital, but access to an international business network and huge experience in commercialisation. The investment allows Ad Dynamo to introduce its advertising technology into new global markets and to continue innovating its product offering.”

Visit Ad Dynamo International’s website
Visit Entelligence’s website
Visit InVenFin’s website
Visit Venfin’s website