Mnectar raises $1M and integrates with other marketing platforms to reach more app publishers

Mnectar has raised an additional $1 million in funding and built alliances with four more companies to promote its new ad platform dubbed Playable, which lets gamers try out a mobile game before they decide to download or buy it. The “playable ads” are a new form of advertising that enables potential purchasers to have a better shopping experience inside a game or app, according to cofounder and chief executive Wally Nguyen.

San Francisco-based Mnectar hopes to start an advertising shake-up by transforming the mobile ad from the staid banner to something much more enticing, and getting players to actually enjoy looking at ads. And that could help solve the problem of getting apps discovered amid a sea of millions of rivals in the app stores. The company takes a proprietary technology, which is similar to that pioneered by companies like OnLive and Gaikai (which Sony bought and uses in its PlayStation Now game-streaming service), and then applies it to making an ad into a playable demo.