We analyse the current investment situation in the Ad & Marketing Tech sector: distribution of investment by segment, M&A operations, investors, etc. In addition, we study the Primetag round and the purchase of OLAmobile from EyeSee.
Primetag closes €1.3M investment round
Primetagthe Portuguese startup that developed software to turn images into new sales channels, has closed a €1.3M round of funding led by Portuguese startup Pathena Investments. The aim of this round is to replicate in Spain the model that Primetag has already established in Portugal. To do this, they will hire 15 more people in the areas of engineering, product and design in the remainder of 2017, to end the year with 30 employees.
In early November, the company launched a new platform based on the same idea as its predecessor: the user, browsing a website or blog, can click on a product in an image and enter directly into the brand's sales channel. In addition to generating traffic, Primetag is able to monitor the full range of brands available to advertisers.
In 18 months, Primetag has reached 23 million people in more than 10 countries. Its main markets are Portugal, Spain, France, Brazil and the UK. In that period of time, the company carried out 354 campaigns, worked with 2,128 influencers and has 53 clients, including brands such as Fnac, El Corte Inglés, TAP, Hawkers, La Redoute, Ikea and Grupo Sonae, among others. By the end of the year, Primetag expects to exceed one million euros in turnover.
OLAmobile buys Portugal's EyeSee
The multinational OLAmobile announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Portuguese startup EyeSeefounded in 2011 by João Redol. The startup has developed a computer vision and pattern recognition technology that enables non-intrusive placement of advertising on videos and images. This type of technology belongs to a new sector of Ad Tech that is experiencing considerable growth at present, known as In-Image Advertising.
The acquisition of EyeSee allows the Portuguese mobile marketing multinational OLAmobile to offer its partners and clients a broader and more prepared offer, responding to one of the main challenges of the industry, which is related to the non-intrusive monetisation of online advertising space.
OLAmobile has also announced that it is looking for more Portuguese startups with differentiating ideas in the area of mobile advertising, in line with the acquisitions in August by IconPeak and BidderPlace.
Ad & Marketing Tech investment analysis
Since 2012, investors have placed about 45% of their bets on early-stage, seed or angel stage Ad & Marketing Tech companies, while the percentage of investment directed to Series A companies has declined in recent years.
The investment effort in the Ad & Marketing Tech sector increased gradually from 2012 to 2015, when it reached $3,700M in 656 deals. In 2016 both the amount and the number of deals suffered a significant decrease, with only $2,700M and 615 deals.
Investment in this sector in 2012-2017 has so far this year totalled close to $20,000M, spread across 182 deals, and concentrated in the Marketing Automation (31% of total investment), Digital Marketing (15%) and Brand Marketing (23%) segments, along with Email (12%) and Apps (8%) platforms.
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