• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, July 2, 2012

Mobile ad network Jumptap said Monday it has raised $27 million in new financing to enhance its product and technology development as it prepares for an IPO.
 
The seventh-round funding comes from prior investors General Catalyst Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Summerhill Venture Partners, Valhalla Partners and WPP, as well new investor Keating Capital. That brings the total raised to date by Jumptap to $121 million.
 
The company didn’t provide any details on timing when it comes to filing for an IPO, but a spokesperson said it hopes to go public within a year.  Jumptap CEO George Bell told Bloomberg revenue increased 60% last year at the 150-employee company.
 
Rapid growth in the sector has helped other mobile ad companies launch IPOs in the last year and half, though the stocks have dropped well off their trading high points.
 
Rival mobile ad network Millennial Media went public in March, raising $132 million through its offering priced at $13 a share. The stock now trades at its opening price, after hitting nearly $28 a share in its first day of trading. Velti, another mobile advertising firm that went public at the start of 2011, has seen its share price cut nearly in half -- to about $6.50 since then.
 
As one of the remaining independent mobile ad networks, Jumptap has been rumored as an acquisition target of a major Internet or other tech company. Jumptap says its network delivers 20 billion impressions a month, reaching 107 million mobile users in the U.S. and 156 million worldwide.
 
Mobile advertising overall increased 150% to $900 million in the first quarter of 2012 from $400 million in the year-earlier period, according to research firm IDC. The market share of mobile advertising grew to 9.8% in the first quarter from 7.1% in the fourth quarter of 2011.
 
The Interactive Advertising Bureau last month estimated mobile ad spending worldwide in 2011 reached $5.3 billion, including $1.6 billion in the U.S.