AdTech firm Good-Loop has closed a £4.5 million Series A round to accelerate its US expansion plans.
The B Corp, which has offices in London and Edinburgh, converts people’s attention to ads into donations to good causes and runs campaigns in over 18 markets around the world.
Its ad formats motivate people to watch an entire ad online by allowing them to ‘unlock’ a free charitable donation at the end of each spot. This strategy allows advertisers to receive more meaningful brand engagement, while appealing to consumers’ goodwill by providing a cost-free means of philanthropy.
The scaleup says this results in an average ad recall 4.5x higher than the industry standard, with designated charities receiving 50% of ad revenue. Current clients include Unilever, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Levi’s, adidas, NBC Universal and Nike.
The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s product roadmap, including the development of new solutions aimed at reducing digital advertising’s substantial carbon footprint.
The company also plans to expand its international teams, including opening new offices in New York and Chicago to serve its growing US markets that currently comprise 33% of total revenue.
The round was led by New York-based investment fund, Quaestus Capital Management, with additional backing from Scottish Enterprise, impact investor SIS Ventures, European ad tech fund First Party Capital and investment raised on the crowdfunding platform Seedrs – bringing total investment into the platform to £6m since it was formed in 2016.
“At the heart of our industry is an inherent value exchange between advertiser and consumer, and I’m on a mission to harness that value as a significant force for good,” said CEO Amy Williams, who founded the company alongside CTO Daniel Winterstein.
“Through our respectful, positive ad platform, brands can treat people online as partners – rather than targets – united by a desire to have a meaningful social impact.
“Backing from industry experts like QCM and FirstPartyCapital, social impact investors and, indeed, the general public, will help to supercharge our growth whilst keeping us true to our values at every step along the way.”
Austin Davis, CEO at QCM, said: “Good-Loop elevates advertising and conscious-minded business to an entirely new level and will become the industry Fairtrade Stamp.
“The business model solves many longstanding issues in the sector and is the paradigm shift that has been needed to regain consumer trust in transparent and ethical advertising that not only provides superior results to advertisers, but does it while making great contributions to the world through philanthropic giving. It is a win-win for all parties.”
Good-Loop has also launched a suite of solutions to help advertisers measure and offset the carbon cost of their digital ad campaigns, including its Carbon-Calculator and Green Ad Tag – a 1×1 tracking pixel that enables brands and agencies to track and offset the carbon cost of their digital advertising in real time.
Demand for Good-Loop’s ad programmatic solutions has grown 180% in the last 12 months, while its purpose-powered ad formats have also now raised more than $5m for charities around the world, including Save The Children, WaterAid, Feeding America and the WWF.