Mar 17, 2022

18 minutes read Channel 4 Ventures and Centerstone Capital lead WeAre8’s $15m series B funding round, signaling a new era in digital media Through its industry-leading media for equity fund, national broadcaster Channel 4 makes major investment in the revolutionary sustainable ad platform, WeAre8, uniting advertisers with millions of people to help address the UK’s most urgent social and environmental challenges. 08:00, 7 March, London, United Kingdom: Channel 4 and Centerstone Capital have made a significant investment in hate-free social app WeAre8 as part of a $15m series B funding round, supporting the platform’s ambition to transform digital advertising. WeAre8 inspires people with exclusive content and every time they watch an ad, they are paid and donations are made to charity too. Through WeAre8’s Sustainable ad buying engine, advertisers receive transformational media results all while delivering against their ESG and sustainability goals. 55% of every pound advertisers spend on WeAre8 is shared directly with people and charities, with another 5% going to a creator fund to fuel micro shows, collaborations and monthly challenges on the 8Stage – a hate-free evolution of the social feed. Through this innovative business model, WeAre8 sets a new standard by democratizing digital advertising, putting people and the planet at the economic centre of the multi-billion-dollar digital ad ecosystem. The investment from Channel 4 Ventures, the UK’s largest ‘media for equity’ fund, comes at an important time in WeAre8’s expansion. As the ad platform ramps up its UK scale through its existing partnership with EE and large talent agreements, this financial backing will enable WeAre8 to accelerate its growth through 2022. WeAre8 will launch its first TV advertising campaign in the UK across Channel 4’s platform portfolio including its streaming service All 4 in Q2 2022 to drive significant brand awareness and reach across its young audience. The ad campaign will feature high profile brand ambassadors including Rio Ferdinand and will highlight the impact that is possible on WeAre8 as people unite in support of the planet. Sue Fennessy, Founder and CEO of WeAre8 said, “We are delighted to announce this strategic investment from Channel 4 and Centerstone Capital. People across the UK and the world are under more economic pressure than ever before and the WeAre8 technology brings money and power back to individuals in a transformational way all while uniting them to help solve the world’s biggest issues. The investment from Channel 4 and Centerstone Capital is enabling us to scale our technology to millions of people every day.”  Vinay Solanki, Head of Channel 4 Ventures at Channel 4, said: “As we continue to focus on growing an investment portfolio of like-minded purpose-driven businesses, we were particularly impressed with WeAre8 and its founder Sue Fennessy. The WeAre8 technology presents a compelling and ethical alternative social digital platform for brands to communicate with consumers. We’re really excited to support WeAre8 and hope the campaign launch across our powerful marketing platform will resonate with our core young viewers who care passionately about environmental and societal issues, and drive mass adoption in the UK.”  John Meacock – CEO – Centerstone Capital, Managing Director said: “Centerstone Capital is excited by how WeAre8 is transforming the advertising industry – placing choice back in the hands of the consumer and allowing brands to build direct relationships with their target audiences. WeAre8’s platform is unique in that it creates great commercial value for both consumers and brands while aligning them to make a difference to the planet and social purpose initiatives. The way that WeAre8 enables brands to become truly customer-centric and directly link ESG initiatives to value is a game-changer. Centerstone Capital is looking forward to supporting WeAre8 on its growth in the UK and its global expansion.”  ENDS Background to WeAre8 WeAre8 is the ground-breaking new digital advertising platform with a visionary new business model, that values and pays users (with donations being made to charities) for their time watching ads. The company has been operating in stealth mode with a team of 52 employees, developing its technology for a full global launch, which is now imminent in the UK. WeAre8 is led by serial tech entrepreneur, Sue Fennessy. In 2020, WeAre8 was certified as a B-Corporation and joins the growing cohort of world-class companies seeking the highest standards of social and environmental impact. How does WeAre8 work? WeAre8 has two major user groups, “consumers” and “brands”: For “consumers” – consumers are valued by being paid for watching ads. The ad experience on WeAre8 is much more elevated and controlled by the user as opposed to interrupting the content experience on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Consumers receive payment, which is between £0.05 and £0.20 by completing the video view. Consumers are also inspired by watching exclusive and behind the scenes content from verified creators on the 8Stage, a hate-free evolution of the social feed. For “brands” using the platform, they are guaranteed the attention of target consumers in a way that leaves them feeling valued and respected, removing a major problem with advertising on digital platforms. A portion of their spend on WeAre8 is also paid automatically paid to good causes, strengthening the sustainability credentials of these brands. Given the importance of sustainability in the narrative of every household brand, this use case for brands is exceptionally wide. $450bn is spent by brands on digital advertising every year. WeAre8 has completed extensive tests with brands and agencies that are committed to shifting portions of their digital advertising spend to WeAre8. How does this work for consumers? WeAre8 sends a push notification to their opted-in community notifying them they have a brand ad to watch. They accept, watch the video ad, answer a couple of questions, and within 30 days they are paid between 5p-20p directly into their WeAre8 wallet. They then can choose to pay off their mobile phone bill, pay their earnings directly into their PayPal account, or pay forward it to charities. WeAre8 has over 50 charities set up on their app across 8 impact areas – Climate, Poverty, Health, Education, Water, Animal Welfare, Equality, Peace. Over 50% of people on WeAre8 pay part of their earnings forward to charities. Many brands advertise on themes of purpose and sustainability. They are also keen to see evidence of engagement with consumers on these topics. The high completion rates mean brands can gather meaningful insights into these campaigns, unlike typical campaigns on the major digital platforms. Why is a solution like WeAre8 needed? The tech giants have become trillion-dollar companies by selling our precious time and serving millions of ads to us every day. This has created vast profits for the hands of a few, whilst having questionable purpose-led credentials. WeAre8’s model redirects 60% of online advertising costs into ethical causes, end-users and the WeAre8 creator fund. Given the large size of the global digital advertising market, this provides a platform to drive meaningful change from the billions of digital interactions our world has every second. What is the 8Stage? WeAre8 has launched a hate-free, ad-free social feed where verified creators will showcase exclusive content around monthly themes such as “Our Precious Planet”, “Mental Health”, and “International Women’s Day”. Rio Ferdinand, as an investor and part of the Management team at WeAre8, will be one of many talent creating exclusive content for the 8Stage. This content will help underpin WeAre8 as the hate-free social app that is on a mission to inspire and unite millions to solve the world’s biggest problems. What does the name WeAre8 relate to? 8 is the infinite power of people to come together to solve the world’s biggest problems. By the end of 2022, there will also be 8 billion people on our precious planet earth. WeAre8 is the technology platform that can unite the world’s population for good. What are the near-term plans for WeAre8? WeAre8 is on a mission to redirect a slice of the £350bn digital ad market back to people and the planet. The WeAre8 technology can economically empower and unite millions of people to come together and address the world’s biggest problems. This is a global plan, with a focus on the UK, US and Australia in 2022. WeAre8 is launching in the UK in Q2 2022 with a major TV campaign on Channel 4. In addition, it will be working with leading talent to promote its message on the 8Stage, and elsewhere. Rio Ferdinand has joined WeAre8’s leadership team to further expansion plans. Leading media agency partners have committed to significant onward media spend. Further announcements are expected in the coming weeks. About Sue Fennessy Sue Fennessy is a serial tech entrepreneur who has spent the last 30 years creating disruptive businesses in the digital economy across Asia, Europe, and North America. As Founder and CEO of WeAre8, she has built technology that delivers transformational results for advertisers all while economically empowering hundreds of millions of people. Through distribution agreements with the world’s largest mobile operators and TV networks, the WeAre8 technology also mobilises millions to solve the world’s biggest problems, making it fun and easy for them to change the world in just two minutes a day. Sue started her first business at age 21, selling it to Omnicom in 2000, and was highlighted by Forbes as a leading innovator in 2017. She is the founder, largest shareholder, and former CEO of the world’s leading media data aggregation business, Standard Media Index, that has exclusive contracts with all global media buying agencies and is relied on by leading media and finance companies including Comcast, NBC, Disney, Warner Media, FOX, Discovery, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and McKinsey. With a unique view of the $450B digital advertising market, Sue became obsessed with the lack of effectiveness, transparency and waste in major digital platforms and the damaging effect this was having on content creators, people and the planet. Sue has built the future of digital media. To learn more, visit www.weare8.com or install the WeAre8 app on the App Store or Google Play .