Latest funding will support new services, a robust client success program, and Verto’s growth in the U.S. and Europe. The growth round comes at a pivotal moment as the fast-paced media measurement market evolves
Verto Analytics, the consumer-centric audience measurement company, announced that it has secured $13.4 million in growth-financing led by Conor Venture Partners, Open Ocean Capital, and Finnish Industry Investment with participation from Steve Farella, Chairman of MDC Media and Steve Marshall, CEO and Founder of Invision. The round investors also include notable industry executives such as Ben Feder, Head of investments for Tencent and previously CEO of Take Two Interactive, and Tom Glocer, Board member of Morgan Stanley and former CEO of Thomson Reuters. In this round Verto also welcomed venture investments from a variety of pre-IPO and growth stage venture funds in Finland, where Verto is headquartered, and the U.S., where Verto maintains its commercial hubs in San Francisco, Seattle, Cincinnati, and New York City.
The current approach to audience measurement has struggled to bridge the gap between the evolution of technology and consumer behavior: some of today’s biggest traditional measurement companies continue to rely on broken methodologies that fail to provide a holistic view of consumers. Since its founding in 2013, Verto has pioneered and mastered single-source panel-based cross-platform solutions to address these shortcomings and support consumer journey modeling, path-to-purchase modeling, segmentation studies and ad effectiveness solutions to provide deep consumer insights and competitive intelligence. Verto will use the new capital to fuel continued growth in the fast-paced media measurement market, boost its customer success program, its commercial account management, and its Helsinki-based Verto Data Lab – a center of excellence dedicated to continued innovation in this area for the next decade.
“Over the past five years, we have built the business from scratch into one of the more formidable forces driving innovation in cross-platform audience measurement,” said Hannu Verkasalo, CEO and founder of Verto Analytics. “The new round of funding will accelerate Verto’s growth and extend our commercial operations in key markets – most notably in the U.S. We have proven the product-market-fit over the past two years, grown our customer base by a factor of four, and doubled annual revenues every year since 2015. The new round will equip us with capital for deals and investments that will ultimately help launch new services, improve customer operations, and penetrate new segments where Verto’s cross-platform audience measurement data is needed. With some of our trusted previous investors joining this round, together with a healthy influx of new investors, we are well positioned to continue growing our business within key target verticals as well as shift focus towards brands, advertisers, and agencies, taking measurable steps to keep customers at the center of our attention.”
After 5 successful years operating in the U.S. and UK, with clients including Microsoft, Intel, Google, Netflix, CNN, and Kargo, Verto has continued building its original single-source methodology through a suite of new syndicated research services. The methodology has produced three granted patents to date, with an additional 13 patents currently under consideration by both the European and U.S. patent offices.
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“Audience measurement used to be focused solely on high-level metrics like reach, frequency, engagement, and the solutions were very siloed by nature,” said Steve Farella, Chairman of MDC Media, an investor in this round and new member of Verto’s advisory board. “In turn, what Verto has demonstrated with their solution and already impressive set of clients, is something I think will be the norm in the future – integrated, single-source, cross-platform measurement. Verto’s solutions can help media buyers make data-driven decisions on marketing strategies, digital touchpoint planning, and understand how to reach consumers exactly at the right point, with the right messaging in a cross-platform world. I am delighted to get involved and help Verto’s team succeed now and in the future.”
“After 25 years in the media industry successfully building technology companies from the ground up, I have seen how important it is to be bold, get the timing right and have the best team to support a disruptive technology,” said Steve Marshall, Partner, Deep Fractal and Former CEO and Founder of INVISION and Theory M.
Steve added, “What I see in Verto is their potentially ground-breaking approach to measuring consumer behavior for the first time across every single set of media channels – both old and new. It’s a huge opportunity to disrupt how media is bought and sold. As a founder of INVISION, I saw how automation could significantly increase advertiser ROI and reduce the operational friction involved in selling and buying cross-platform advertising. The missing link was always the lack of a true cross-platform currency, and I now see the opportunity for Verto to fill that need across the industry. I am looking forward to helping them leverage their disruptive platform to build solutions that will potentially change the future of cross-platform advertising.”
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