St. Louis advertising technology startup Advocado said Wednesday it plans to target growth after raising $10 million from investors.
San Francisco-based investment firm Crescent Core Advisors led the financing, providing $7.5 million in funding for Advocado. The funding brings Advocado total capital raised since its launch to about $15 million.
Founded in 2017, Advocado has developed a cross-media data management technology platform used by brands, media companies and advertising agencies and designed to boost advertising performance. It is led by its co-founders, CEO Brian Handrigan and President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Linihan.
"Advocado's exceptional set of cross-screen ad verification solutions puts the company in a unique position to make a significant impact in the evolving adtech industry," said Jun Hong Heng, founder and chief investment officer at Crescent Cove. "Advocado's platform meets the need to deliver better customer experiences head on, empowering advertisers with up to the minute insights they need to create more effective campaigns.”
Advocado said its $10 million in financing will aid its ongoing growth and product expansion efforts. Earlier this month, the startup said it acquired Kantar BVS, which provides technology to help brands measure the reach and impact of their advertisements. Prior to the deal, Kantar BVS was a division of global data analytics and consulting firm Kantar. Additionally, Advocado said Nov. 23 it acquired 47 patents from VEIL Interactive Technologies, an affiliate of Koplar Interactive Systems International. Through that deal, Advocado acquired the VEIL watermarking technology, which it has licensed for five years and says is used to monitor when advertisements air.
Advocado said its recent M&A deals, coupled with its investment, will offer the ability to further develop ad verification, attribution and campaign coordination tools that help advertisers and publishers monitor and understand the impact of advertisements.
"At Advocado, our mission is for advertisers to gain more control of their data to inform smarter, more strategic real-time decisions around their spends," Linihan said. ”We're thrilled to partner with Crescent Cove and are confident the collaboration will play an important role in successfully meeting our aggressive growth objectives.”
Advocado has its headquarters in downtown St. Louis and has a team of about 25 employees. In addition to its $10 million financing, the company said Wednesday that existing investor Michael Beer has joined its board of directors.
