Turkish Cash and Numbers for Phorm

Online ad targeting company Phorm is to raise £7m ($10.8m) to fund its expansion in Turkey, announced on DRNO in July; and says impressive numbers have already opted into its operation there.

Phorm, which has an agreement with Turkish ISP TTNET and now says it is already serving ads to over one million unique opt-in users, is selling 5.6m new shares to Mirabaud Securities and Liberium Capital.

CEO Kent Ertugrul says the scale of the operations in Turkey - which according to comScore is Europe's fastest-growing online ad market, represents 'a significant revenue opportunity' for the company', adding that the user count in Brazil has doubled since March and that commercial activity will begin shortly in Romania.

TTNET is the country's second largest provider with around 6m broadband lines. Ertugrul said recently that it would soon 'become increasingly clear to investors that the long wait for revenues will have been worthwhile.'

Phorm is also developing a major offering for China. Web site: www.phorm.com .