Apr 3, 2019

Share OTT outfit Tru Optik has announced a $10 million funding round from venture capital and institutional investors, a development that comes as investors clamor to get in on the next wave of ad tech. The round was led by Mithera Capital with additional participation by TransUnion, Connecticut Innovations, Arab Angel Fund, and Progress Ventures and takes its total investment to $16 million with the funding to be used to hire senior and mid-level employees. Speaking with Adweek, Andre Swanston, Tru Optik CEO, said the funding would be used to further accelerate his company’s growth, specifically investments to bolster its 80 million-strong household graph, as well as potential expansion into Latin America and APAC. Tru Optik helps media buyers and owners measure the reach and impact of their OTT campaigns by measuring them against first- and third-party audience segments with the company having partnered with a raft of high-profile industry names. This includes a recent tie-up with Oracle Data Cloud, making it the first OTT-focused data management platform to integrate with ODC’s segments. This also builds on top of earlier partnerships with RTL-owned ad-tech company SpotX plus AppNexus , a full-suite programmatic outfit bought by AT&T last year. Swanston went on to characterize Tru Optik as “the Intel of OTT” by working with both buy- and sell-side players to make audience data actionable at scale in the fast-moving OTT sector. This is a trait that is now beginning to attract prospective investors in their droves, according to Swanston. “We’re not your typical type of ad-tech company,” he said. “We’re not out there selling our own Kool-Aid … we’re just the quiet company on the inside that makes everybody else’s thing work. And that was very compelling to a lot of strategic investors as well as venture capital firms.” OTT ad revenues are expected to top $20 billion in the U.S. alone next year with Mithera Capital managing director and COO Mark Feldman describing further growth as “inevitable.” In addition to the investment round, TransUnion and Tru Optik also announced a further tie-up that will better aid precision audience targeting of OTT media buys through the joint provision of syndicated, demographic and financial consumer segments. Matt Spiegel, evp, digital marketing solutions and head of media at TransUnion, added, “OTT is already a mainstream viewing option, globally. However, brands and media companies need the advanced one-to-one targeting capabilities and census-level measurement that Tru Optik provides to realize OTT’s advertising potential.” Share 1