Toro

Toro, initially launched as Red Hot Labs, Inc. in 2012, operated as a mobile marketing platform primarily focused on optimizing advertising campaigns for application developers on Facebook. The company was founded by Amitt Mahajan, Joel Poloney, and Dave Pekar. Mahajan and Poloney were previously co-founders of MyMiniLife, a venture that played a crucial role in the development of the popular game Farmville and was later acquired by Zynga. This background in social gaming and application development informed their mission to simplify marketing for other app developers.

The firm's core service was providing a suite of tools for running high-performance advertising campaigns on Facebook for mobile applications. This service included features like A/B testing, lookalike audience targeting, and automatic bidding optimization, all managed through a single dashboard. By acting as a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer, Toro aimed to guide app companies through the complexities of setting up and promoting their apps on the social media giant's advertising platform. The business model was centered on helping developers acquire users and grow their app's user base through precisely targeted ad campaigns.

In February 2015, Google acquired Toro for an undisclosed amount, a move that was seen as both a talent and technology acquisition. Following the acquisition, the Toro team was integrated into Google's mobile ads team to leverage their expertise in making the lives of app developers easier. As part of the transition, Toro suspended the creation of new campaigns on its platform, though it continued to provide optimization and reporting for its existing customers. The acquisition signaled a strategic move by Google to bolster its own mobile advertising capabilities rather than to enter the Facebook-specific marketing space. Prior to the acquisition, the company had secured $1.5 million in a seed funding round from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, and General Catalyst Partners.

Keywords: mobile marketing, app marketing, Facebook advertising, user acquisition, ad campaign optimization, Red Hot Labs, Amitt Mahajan, Joel Poloney, Google acquisition, Farmville, adtech, mobile app promotion, A/B testing, lookalike targeting, automatic bidding, Facebook PMD, developer tools, social app marketing, marketing automation, campaign management