Social-ad firm Appssavvy raises $3.1 million

Appssavvy, a start-up that connects advertisers looking for "social media" campaigns with developers and firms that will build widgets for them or get their ads on existing apps, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $3.1 million in Series A venture funding. The round was led by True Ventures, with previous investor Scott Kurnit, founder of About.com, also participating.

Earlier this month, Appssavvy struck a deal with NBC Universal, making it "the exclusive advertising-sales team for the NBC News iCue social-media application."

"Social media has the potential to connect marketers with consumers in extraordinary ways," investor Kurnit said in a statement. "Appssavvy has assembled the best team I've seen in this emerging space and is well positioned to lead the way in unlocking huge potential for the future of advertising and monetization of one of the most exciting Internet segments of the past several years." The funding will be used to "sustain growth."

Social-media advertising is still the equivalent of an edgy new drug on Madison Avenue (are you listening, Don Draper?), with some skeptics unwilling to commit the ad dollars and some uberenthusiasts diving in head-first. But there's reason for the industry, Appssavvy included, to proceed with caution: a recent analyst report estimated that a full half of "social-media campaigns" will fail.

This post was updated to correct that this funding round is considered Series A, not Series B. Appssavvy does not consider its previous funding to be a full round.