Kiptronic, a podcast advertising company, has announced the completion of a $4 million round of Series A funding, led by Blueprint Ventures and Prism VentureWorks with participation from existing angel investors.

Kiptronic provides targeted ad insertion for content publishers delivering video and audio to disconnected devices such as iPods, mobile phones, and laptops. Kiptronic’s technology lets major media publishers and independent podcasters seamlessly insert ads at download time without altering existing publishing processes.

“The collective industry experience, market insights and operational know-how of Blueprint Ventures and Prism VentureWorks was the ideal match for Kiptronic as we looked for investment partners to meet market demand for our technology service,”¬ù said Jonathan Cobb, Founder and CEO of Kiptronic.

Bart Schachter, Managing Director for Blueprint Ventures, and Paul O’Brien, Venture Partner for Prism VentureWorks, will join Kiptronic’s Board of Directors.

“Existing solutions can insert ads into streaming video viewed over the Internet, but Kiptronic has also solved the hard problem of inserting dynamic ads into offline time-shifted video and audio,” Schachter said. “Kiptronic will appeal to rich-media publishers looking to ad-enable their content for both online and offline consumption.”

Kiptronic’s marketplace has grown to include 47 million available downloads in the fourth quarter of 2006.

“Prism looks for companies that can sustain a competitive advantage regardless of changing market dynamics – Kiptronic fits that mold,”¬ù O’Brien added. “Advertising is in a state of rapid change. Kiptronic’s turnkey solution addresses the new dynamics of the market without forcing customers to change the way they do business.”¬ù

Kiptronic’s strategic partnerships with rich media hosting providers allow content publishers to turn on Kiptronic ad insertion as a simple add-on service. Kiptronic’s web server software is integrated into leading content delivery networks including Akamai Technologies and independent content publisher networks including Liberated Syndication.

“As advertising models are evolving to leverage rich media over the Internet, two key things are required: reliably scalable delivery, and seamless advertising insertion technology,”¬ù said Brad Rinklin, Vice President of Marketing of Akamai. “Kiptronic has tackled the problem of ad insertion into audio and video files, while achieving high-performance delivery using Akamai’s globally distributed platform. Customers will benefit greatly from this powerful combination.”