OwnLocal

Lloyd Armbrust and Jason Novek founded Seeing Interactive in 2010.[1][5][6][7][8] Backed by seed accelerator Y-Combinator, the company launched as a service for local newspaper, TV, and Radio stations.[1][4][5][9] After its launch, the startup raised $1 million in seed funding from various investors, including Lerer Ventures, Baseline Ventures, and angel investors Joshua Schachter and Paul Buchheit.[1][10] The company changed its name to OwnLocal in March 2011.[11]

In October 2011, OwnLocal received an undisclosed amount from a funding round led by Automattic, the developer of WordPress.[3][9] The incubator 500 Startups also participated in the funding.[8] The round raised the company's total funding to $2 million.[2][12]

OwnLocal was one of the first for-profit companies to receive funding from the Knight Enterprise Fund, a fund for media innovation.[2][9][12] The company also received an equity investment in February 2013 from Digital First Ventures for an undisclosed amount.[13]

In May 2014, OwnLocal acquired Whoosh Traffic.[14] Whoosh Traffic was an Austin-based company that powered SEO reporting for large Fortune 500 companies and small businesses.[15] Whoosh was backed by Techstars, 500 Startups, and several other major technology investors.

OwnLocal acquired Sidengo on March 10, 2015.[16] Sidengo was an easy-to-use website builder for people with no design or technical skills. Sidengo was started in Monterrey, Mexico by Jorge González and Gabriel Garza.[17] As of March 2015, OwnLocal had integrated the Sidengo technology into their platform and planned to distribute the technology to their media partners.[16]

OwnLocal acquired Inbound Press[18] in March 2016. Inbound Press was created in Orange County, California by Andrew McFadden. The company's flagship product, Smart Media Kit, is a proven process that generates new advertising leads for newspapers. OwnLocal had added Smart Media Kit to its product offerings[19] as of June 2016.

In 2017, OwnLocal acquired Wanderful Media.[20][21]