Adtech startup PubGuard raises funding from Mercia Fund Management

PubGuard, an adtech startup from London, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Mercia Fund Management.

PubGuard is an ad verification and malware detection tool for digital publishers. The startup, founded in 2015, will use the new funds to expand its customer base, particularly in the US, and grow its team.

“We founded PubGuard after seeing an opportunity to make ads better for users and publishers. In response, we built an integration free solution to identify offensive content and ineffective ads so in-app and desktop publishers can easily maintain their ad standards,” said PubGuard CEO Justin Wenczka.

“The rise of adblocking is a sign of a disconnect between user expectations and the reality of advertising today. We have seen that improving ad quality increases user engagement.”

“PubGuard has developed a highly effective and unique product that helps solve one of the advertising industry's biggest problems,” added Chris Kilroy, investment associate at Mercia Fund Management. “The founders have strong domain expertise combined with a deep understanding of the industry and we are incredibly confident in their ability to build a highly valuable company over the years to come.”