Adbrain is building a platform it says will enable customers to track users across devices and deliver more targeted messages. Advertising channel, Taykey, has also received funding.
Adbrain, a start-up building a transparent, real-time, multi-screen ad platform, has launched with $1.5 million in seed capital.
Notion Capital led the round. Nick Hynes, chief executive and co-founder of independent mobile marketing agency Somo; Sacha Carton, a media and technology entrepreneur of Ogmenta and Ad Pepper Media; and Tobin Ireland, global board member of the Mobile Marketing Association and a former senior executive at Vodafone, BSkyB and AOL, also participated. Additional investors include Anil Hansjee of Google, IDG Ventures, Shazam and Lionhead, as well as technology investor Chris Mairs of Metaswitch Networks.
Proceeds will be used to build an advertising platform that will let customers track users across different devices and to advertise to them in a consistent manner. Adbrain says its users will be able to create, manage and optimize campaigns in real time, delivering what it says will be more targeted and meaningful messages.
The mobile advertising functions of its platform will be available in Autumn 2013. Its multi-screen capabilities will follow in early 2014.
Adbrain says its mission is to “tear away the veil separating advertiser and audience, allowing brands to gain insight into how consumers engage across different devices.”
According to Adbrain, the Adbrain Engine creates a single customer profile by modeling billions of rich desktop, mobile and tablet data sets and its platform will incorporate intelligent, data-driven real-time bidding functionality.
“Our mission is to help brands connect the screens so they can better understand their customers across all devices,” said Gareth Davies, co-founder and CEO of Adbrain, in a prepared statement. “We’re helping advertisers realize the link in behavior between mobile and desktop technology so they can regain control and deploy more efficient, targeted campaigns that deliver more meaningful interactions with their customers.”
Jos White, partner at Notion Capital, added, “The mobile advertising industry is set for explosive growth in the coming years as the market catches up with the levels of usage. But there is a distinct lack of innovation and transparency in the market. We think this is an opportunity that Adbrain can take full advantage of with a great team and a compelling vision based on big data across multiple devices.”
Adbrain is based in New York and London.
In other funding news, topical advertising channel Taykey said it raised $6 million in a third round of funding.
Tenaya Capital joined existing investors Sequoia Capital, Softbank Capital and Marker. All existing investors participated.
Taykey says proceeds will support the company’s growth.
The company has raised $17 million to date.
Taykey says its mission is to make brands more real-time by delivering ads based on what is topical for their audiences.
“Taykey is creating a new channel for advertising to enable brands to be agile and responsive to what their audience is paying attention to in real time,” said Douglas Leone, general partner of Sequoia Capital, in a prepared statement. “Their revenue and talent growth in the last year proves the market’s desire for topical advertising.”
Taykey founder and chief executive Amit Avner added, “As we approach profitability this year, we determined that the time was right to take a small investment to enable us to expand our personnel and fuel even more rapid growth in the near term.”
New hires include Adam Klee, who joins as vice president of media operations, and Carmit Tevet-Kuzy, who joins as vice president of finance.
