Adtech—advertising technology—is all about the tools, analytics, and software that companies use to track and inform digital advertising and consumer behaviour. It’s become vital for running effective ad campaigns, capturing consumer attention, and maximising ad spend. By better understanding behaviour and patterns, companies can advertise to the right audience at the right time, and win more business.
Ad technology companies in the UK have capitalised on increasing web traffic and the growing demand for more personalised advertising over the last few years. Since 2011, the United Kingdom’s 440 high-growth adtech startups have raised £1.45b in equity funding, much of which—£1.18b to be exact—has been secured by companies based in London.
As the time we spend online continues to increase, and businesses across the world desperately try to increase revenues to pre-COVID-19 levels, the adtech industry could have a very lucrative future. In this article, we’ve ranked the top 13 London adtech companies, according to the total amount of funds raised.
1. Pollen
Founded: 2010
Location: Lambeth
Total funding rounds: 6
Total funds raised: £101m
Pollen—formerly known as Verve—runs a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for events marketers. It encourages people to promote group experiences to their friends, in exchange for rewards. Pollen’s marketplace has a growing online community, with 35k active members, globally, and has sold almost 1m experiences in total, across travel, live events, and festivals.
Pollen has secured £101m in equity fundraisings through six rounds. 2019 was a stellar year for the company, when it secured a total of £78m through two fundraisings. Pollen’s investors include Northzone, Backed VC, Draper Esprit, Kindred Capital VC, Ventures, Frontline Ventures, and Sienna Capital. The company has been using the funding to continue its global expansion into categories beyond music and travel.
2. Ogury
Founded: 2014
Location: Islington
Total funding rounds: 5
Total funds raised: $92m (£69.0m)
Ogury is a world leader in mobile brand advertising. Its Ogury Advertising Engine is an integrated stack of technology, designed and optimised for branding campaigns on mobile. Driven by user choice, it uses high-quality data to deliver relevant ads in a brand-safe and fraud-free environment.
Since launching in 2014, the company has secured a staggering £69m in equity funding through five funding rounds. The latest of these was in December 2019—a round of £38.1m led by IDInvest Partners. Ogury now employs more than 400 people across 11 countries.
3. Amplience
Founded: 2010
Location: Westminster
Total funding rounds: 8
Total funds raised: £55.8m
Amplience (formerly 10CMS) is an on-demand platform enabling retailers to quickly create and manage engaging interactive content that drives more sales while reinforcing brand values. Through its marketing technology (martech), the company has served more than 200 of the world’s leading brands, including Boohoo, Mulberry, Shop Direct, and TUMI, to deliver optimised customer shopping experiences.
To date, the company has raised £55.8m through eight fundraising rounds. Investors include Octopus Ventures, North East Accelerator Fund, and SVB Capital. The most recent investment of £7.8m was made by Columbia Lake Partners in October 2019.
4. QuBit
Founded: 2010
Location: Westminster
Total funding rounds: 4
Total funds raised: £49.8m
Founded by a small team who previously worked at Google, QuBit has developed web-based software that enables online sellers to deliver targeted ads, based on consumers’ web-browsing history. By matching the e-commerce adverts and products that customers see with their unique affinities and tastes, QuBit aims to increase conversions and sales.
Investors in the company include Goldman Sachs, Sapphire Ventures, Accel Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Balderton Capital. The company has raised £49.8m through just 4 rounds. Recently, QuBit partnered with Google Cloud’s Recommendations AI technology, which uses artificial intelligence and deep learning (a class of machine learning algorithms) to deliver more relevant and targeted shopping experiences.
5. SuperAwesome
Founded: 2013
Location: Westminster
Total funding rounds: 6
Total funds raised: £49.1m
SuperAwesome is a digital marketing platform focused on under-13s, having spotted a gap in the market for child-friendly digital ad networks. It ensures its clients are advertising appropriately and complying with data protection laws, working with hundreds of brands and content owners to safely engage with over 500m kids every month. The company helps optimise social media campaigns to reach the right audience safely, using their access to a pool of trusted global influencers.
Partners include Lego, Mattel, Hasbro, Nintendo, and WPP, which SuperAwesome helps to provide better visibility and security to children online. In January 2020 Microsoft’s venture fund, M12, led a £13m financing round with Harbert Venture Partners, Hoxton Ventures, Ibis Capital, and Mayfair Equity Partners. This has taken the company’s total fundraisings up to £46.1m raised through six rounds.
6. GlobalWebIndex
Founded: 2009
Location: City of London
Total funding rounds: 3
Total funds raised: £36.4m
Using a combination of survey and analytics data, GlobalWebIndex (GWI) provides market research on digital advertising and consumer behaviour to marketing agencies, media companies, and large brands across 46 countries. Clients include Twitter, Google, Spotify, WPP, IPG, and Omnicom Group who use the GWI platform to insights into audience behaviours.
GWI’s total fundraisings to date have reached £36.4m, through just three fundraising rounds. The company has been focusing its recent efforts on international expansion in the US and Asia, as well as product development.
7. Realeyes
Founded: 2007
Location: Westminster
Total funding rounds: 8
Total funds raised: £34.5m
Realeyes has developed software that uses facial expression data (collected through consumers’ webcams) to understand their response to online advertising. Through computer vision and AI, the adtech company analyses consumer emotion and attention. In doing so, it can improve customer experience, and drive growth. Realeyes is already working with some of the biggest global brands, including Coca-Cola, eBay, and Condé Nast.
Spun out from the University of Oxford in 2007, the company has raised £34.5m in equity fundraising to date, from investors such as Draper Esprit, Global Brain Corporation, and Karma Ventures.
8. Supponor
Founded: 2008
Location: Hammersmith and Fulham
Total funding rounds: 9
Total funds raised: £33.1m
Supponor has developed a system that improves the way billboard advertisements are displayed at live sports events, catering ads according to TV viewers’ demographics.
Self-described as ‘the sports industry’s global solution for live in-game virtual advertising’, its advertising technology overlays LED or static perimeter boards with virtual, dynamic messaging. This means that different consumers will see different ads. It digitally alters the output of advertisements fed to TV stations according to their target audience and region, aiming to reach local audiences in a more powerful and targeted way.
This SME is using innovative adtech solutions to shake up the digital ad space, growing from strength to strength, and securing £33.1m in equity fundraising since its inception in 2008.
9. LoopMe
Founded: 2012
Location: Camden
Total funding rounds: 7
Total funds raised: £30.7m
LoopMe has developed white label software (that which is provided unbranded to a reseller), primarily for mobile in-app gaming and video ads, which offers users the option to view adverts, rather than forcing pop-up banners on them. Through programmatic advertising, LoopMe’s software optimises media and ad delivery which, in turn, can improve conversion rates, purchase intent, and campaign results.
Featuring on multiple high-growth lists in recent years, the company has raised £30.7m in funding altogether. Most notably, LoopMe secured £13.1m in equity investment in 2018 from BGF Growth Capital, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Impulse VC, and Open Ocean.
10. Ve Global
Founded: 2017
Location: City of London
Total funding rounds: 4
Total funds raised: £25.8
Ve Global has developed online software for tracking marketing and sales performance metrics in e-commerce businesses. The company’s product also uses targeted online advertising to encourage users with items in their ‘shopping basket’ to return to the relevant website and complete their purchase. This customer engagement toolkit works to grow their clients’ audience, engage and convert customers, and optimise digital advertising spending.
Ve Global uses adtech to increase conversion rates at a lower cost, and its business model has attracted an impressive £25.8m in equity fundraising since its recent incorporation in April 2017.
11. Blis Media
Founded: 2007
Location: Westminster
Total funding rounds: 6
Total funds raised: £24.2m
Blis Media has developed a web, mobile, and tablet ad targeting platform. The adtech software company specialises in location-powered digital advertising, analytics, and attribution. Its philosophy is that location data is the ‘most accurate indicator of “real” behaviour and intent at scale’ versus any other data, and will revolutionise insight-driven marketing through planning, activation, and measurement.
Like Loopme and others on our list, Blis has featured on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 lists and has won multiple global industry awards. Founded by CEO Gregor Isbister, Blis has raised £24.2m to date.
12. Novatiq
Founded: 2013
Location: Westminster
Total funding rounds: 3
Total funds raised: £21.1m
Novatiq (previously Smartpipe Solutions) has built a web-based service that allows companies in the telecommunications sector to sell anonymised customer data to advertisement agencies. This enables businesses to personalise their mobile advertising. Novatiq monetises first-party data and intelligence, without compromising personal data.
On its website, Novatiq assures customers that no data is ‘left in the adtech ecosystem, ensuring full compliance with GDPR, data protection, and ePrivacy regulations’. It’s ditched third party cookies, having developed its own proprietary technology. Founded in 2013, and trading out of Westminster, Novatiq has secured £21.1m in fundraising to date.
13. Freespee
Founded: 2008
Location: Hackney
Total funding rounds: 3
Total funds raised: £19.3m
Offering location-based, mobile click-to-call advertising, and analytics for businesses, Freespee aims to identify revenue gaps across clients’ funnel. Its platform enables consumers to talk to brands in real-time via their interface of choice. It specialises in lead management automation, also offering a visualisation platform and API, so that large companies can gain insight into their data and customer journeys.
Headquartered in London with locations in Uppsala, Barcelona, Paris and Düsseldorf, Freespee serves clients in over 50 countries. Freespee has raised a substantial £19.3m across three rounds since inception in 2012, the most recent round being an £8.45m equity investment from Verdane Capital in 2018.
And there you have it: our top 13 adtech companies in London, ranked.
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