Programmatic in-game advertising solution, Anzu, has completed a $48m (£38m) Series B funding round, significantly increasing its valuation and adding several new high-profile investors. The new round will also include converting the SAFE notes and investors exiting with a 10x valuation increase.

The funding round was led by American media, sports, and entertainment companies, by Emmis Corporation, with additional investments from PayPal Ventures, Evolution, Simon Equity Partners, and Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund, a corporate venture arm of Japanese entertainment company, Bandai Namco Entertainment. Existing Anzu investors include Sony Innovation Fund, NBCUniversal, WPP, Bitkraft, Samsung Next, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) Ventures, Axel Springer and Marquee Ventures.

The company said it will use the funding to continue to build out its global leadership team. Anzu will also seek to grow its US footprint by developing teams across the country. It said the funding would allow it to remain independent and fully focused on its mission to make advertising in games better.

Anzu’s in-game ads enable advertisers to reach audiences programmatically in a non-disruptive and engaging way. It helps game developers monetize their titles with ad placements that complement the gameplay, and by monetizing the entire game session, they benefit from consistent and reliable revenue streams. It supports all major and custom-built game engines, and offers a full-stack ad monetization solution that provides complete control over ad placements.

“We are thrilled to close our Series B funding round and bring some exciting new investors on board,” said Itamar Benedy, Anzu Co-founder and CEO. “We are confident that in-game advertising has the potential to be a multi-billion dollar market, and Anzu is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this huge opportunity. Over the past year, we have achieved some significant milestones towards our vision, and have connected with more exclusive AAA games and premium content, expanded our measurement capabilities for advertisers, and secured patents for our unique intellectual property.”