The co-founder of digital ad company Undertone is stepping down

UndertoneEric Franchi, co-founder of the digital ad firm Undertone, is leaving the company after 16 years.

Franchi, who is regularly spotted at ad industry conferences and in industry trade press, plans to focus on investing in and consulting digital startups. His last day at Undertone will be June 1.

"Over the past year, investing in and advising startups has grown from a side project into an obsession for me," he told Business Insider. "I'm going to be focusing on that full time from here."

Undertone was founded in 2001 as an early digital ad network-essentially selling ads for other websites. It eventually evolved into a company offering a fuller suite of ad offerings to big marketers, from actually making their ads to selling social video ad packages.

The Israeli tech firm Perion acquired Undertone in late 2016 in a deal worth $180 million.

Undertone's president Robert Schwartz issued a company-wide memo regarding Franchi's departure on Thursday afternoon:

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