Lean Media, an audience-first programmatic media company serving the agriculture industry and businesses targeting rural audiences, has announced the successful closure of an oversubscribed seed round of $500,000.

Much of Lean Media’s funding round came from local investors in St. Louis, including The Yield Lab (as the lead investor), Prosper Startup Accelerator, The St. Louis Arch Angels, and a private investor from the agriculture and media industries. Another of Lean Media’s new investors, Missouri Technology Corporation, is based in Jefferson City, MO.

“We have been very pleased with the continued momentum of Lean Media as they continue to achieve milestone after milestone,” said Chris Danforth, Managing Director of The Yield Lab. “They have been a tremendous member of the 2017 Yield Lab class.” The Yield Lab is an accelerator dedicated to making agriculture more sustainable through investments in innovative AgTech developers.

Lean Media co-founder Matt Jeter says he was emboldened by the funding round’s success, but not surprised. “We’ve always been confident that our strategic approach to programmatic video and display would grab the attention of major players in our space,” he said. “This seed funding is further proof that we’re offering something of serious value to our clients, and will go a long way towards expanding our capabilities and growing our St. Louis area team.”

Lean Media plans to use the funding to make additional hires and develop software that will strengthen the agency’s market position. The company has already added multiple sales and account management roles, and is actively interviewing for additional roles in software engineering, data science, and ad tech.

“Lean Media is passionate about helping agribusinesses improve their digital advertising through our innovative, yet simple audience-first approach,” said Beth Handrigan, CEO and co-founder of Lean Media. “We are thrilled to have the support of the St. Louis investment community — their contributions will allow us to continue to develop and innovate our technology platform as we work to make this solution available to even more customer segments.”

Lean Media’s programmatic display advertising platform gives agribusiness and rural community advertisers a new level of control and confidence when targeting farmers, ranchers and rural lifestylers via online ads. Their audience-first approach to digital advertising uses advanced data analytics and proprietary programmatic media buying methods to deliver cross-device ads with greater frequency, precision and control than traditional media buying.