IGA Worldwide Inc, which provides independent in-game advertising, has announced that the company’s founder and 2005 Young Gun, Ed Bartlett, has left the company in order to pursue new ventures.
Former game developer Bartlett sold his agency Hive Partners to IGA in 2004, joining the fledgling company as a co-founder before helping to raise its initial $17m Series A venture capital financing.
Bartlett played an instrumental role in seeding the in-game advertising market with press, advertisers and games developers, as well as growing IGA’s share of it via global inventory deals with companies including: EA, Valve, Codemasters, Sega and Atari, building consumer reach of over 30m unique users.
Most recently, as vice president Europe, Bartlett had been responsible for IGA’s day-to-day operations across the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Poland, sealing a number of innovative deals including a partnership with leading out-of-home advertising agency, Posterscope.
Barlett said: “The past seven years have been a remarkable period in my life and I am immensely proud of everything we have achieved together in that time, in particular the measurable difference we have made to game developers and publishers seeking new revenue streams.
“With new funding in place and signs of a resurgence in the advertising market, the company is extremely well placed to capitalise on renewed industry confidence and market growth. I’m now looking forward to exploring a number of exciting new challenges in gaming and beyond.”
Barlett has now founded The Future Tense, which features emerging contemporary artists, after deciding that “the art market is ripe for some disruption”.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2010