Why Silicon Valley startup C1X opened an office in Omaha

San Jose-based ad tech startup C1X has opened a new office in Omaha, Nebraska. The company was founded in 2014 by Mukundu Kumaran to improve the marketplace for premium advertisers and publishers. “Our mission is to bring efficiency and data science to digital advertising,” said Perkins. The current auction-based digital advertising model has served premium publishers and advertisers poorly, according…

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Deana Boicourt and Kimberly Perkins at the Scott Technology Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Photo by Josh Foo.

San Jose-based ad tech startup C1X has opened a new office in Omaha, Nebraska. The company was founded in 2014 by Mukundu Kumaran to improve the marketplace for premium advertisers and publishers.

“Our mission is to bring efficiency and data science to digital advertising,” said Perkins.

The current auction-based digital advertising model has served premium publishers and advertisers poorly, according to Perkins. C1X provides private marketplaces that offer direct and auction based ad buys with data-backed guarantees so advertisers and publishers know they are getting what they pay for.

“Today you still have a lot brands spending money not necessarily knowing how well their audiences are targeted,” said Perkins. “Buying with a guarantee that you reaching your users is a pretty novel concept.”

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In 2015 the company raised a Series A round for $5.1 million. This October they raised an additional $8.5 million in their Series B round. They now have offices in New York City, India, Tokyo and Dubai.

“In just about two years we’ve expanded pretty widely,” said Perkins.

“The Silicon Prairie is real”

Kumaran founded C1X after his experience as an engineering director at Yahoo, according to TechCrunch.

“The reality is a large portion of our employees are former Yahoos,” said Perkins. “Many of us are from California. I was in the Burbank office for a while. Our founder worked for Yahoo. Our CTO worked for Yahoo.”

Yahoo’s Omaha data center and office employ over 350 people. The office serves as Yahoo’s hub for display and search advertising operations. The talent pool that Yahoo has tapped into in Omaha was a major appeal for the company, along with veteran advertising agencies like Bailey Lauerman.

“It’s certainly evident that the Silicon Prairie is real,” said Perkins. “This location gives us a really good base to serve the area, with a really healthy economy here, with a lot of large and mid-size companies that are spending a lot on advertising. We want to position ourselves to help them be more efficient with their spend.”

C1X’s Omaha office is located at the Scott Tech Center in the Aksarben Village neighborhood.

“We are looking for people more on the sales end, but I’m discovering there’s all these engineers here as well,” said Perkins. “I certainly see a huge potential for growth.”

Ryan Pendell is the Managing Editor of Silicon Prairie News.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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13 responses to “Why Silicon Valley startup C1X opened an office in Omaha”

  1. Julie Lutz Bishop Avatar
    Julie Lutz Bishop

    Congrats Kim! Excited to see continue movement and progress for the Silicon Prairie area!

  2. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    You opened an office in Omaha because you don’t have to pay your employees there and you can fool them into thinking this is the best and only opportunity that they will ever have.

    1. duh Avatar
      duh

      Doesn’t make any sense whatsoever! People in Omaha work for free? Let us all start companies there!!

      1. Ed Avatar
        Ed

        After the tax breaks and incentives that Nebraska and Iowa hand out to companies who relocate their customer operations there from CA, the revenue implications are such that those companies’ employees may as well work for free.

        1. Baba Avatar
          Baba

          This makes no sense whatsoever. Tax breaks and incentives are paid by the local government. The employees still get their salaries….

        2. Josh Avatar
          Josh

          Ed, you obviously have yet to see the incentives nor the list of companies that have BUILT themselves in Omaha. Maybe you should climb out from under your rock and look up someone named Warren Buffett.

  3. […] to move to Omaha as Lorenzo switched back to managing Global Finance for Yahoo, and I opened the C1X office here in the Exchange building on the 8th floor,” said Perkins. “I made the argument […]

  4. […] to move to Omaha as Lorenzo switched back to managing Global Finance for Yahoo, and I opened the C1X  office here in the Exchange building on the 8th floor,” said Perkins. “I made the argument […]

  5. […] to move to Omaha as Lorenzo switched back to managing Global Finance for Yahoo, and I opened the C1X office here in the Exchange building on the 8th floor,” said Perkins. “I made the argument […]

  6. […] to move to Omaha as Lorenzo switched back to managing Global Finance for Yahoo, and I opened the C1X office here in the Exchange building on the 8th floor,” said Perkins. “I made the argument […]

  7. […] to move to Omaha as Lorenzo switched back to managing Global Finance for Yahoo, and I opened the C1X office here in the Exchange building on the 8th floor,” said Perkins. “I made the argument […]

  8. […] to move to Omaha as Lorenzo switched back to managing Global Finance for Yahoo, and I opened the C1X office here in the E… […]

  9. […] to move to Omaha as Lorenzo switched back to managing Global Finance for Yahoo, and I opened the C1X office here in the Exchange building on the 8th floor,” said Perkins. “I made the argument that […]