Venture Capital News: 4C Insights Lands $26M Series C Financing
2016-09-20
CHICAGO, IL, 4C Insights, ('4C'), a global leader in data science and media technology, today announces the completion of $26 million in Series C financing.
The investment was led by Kayne Partners, the growth private equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., an alternative investment firm managing over $23 billion in assets. All previous investors, including Jump Capital and Prime Ventures, participated in the round. Prior to its Series C funding, 4C had raised $11.6 million over the past three years. Leon Chen, Vice President, Kayne Partners, will join the 4C board of directors.
4C plans to use the funds to deepen its market presence through geographic and product expansion. Specifically, the company will increase applications of affinity-based targeting across TV, video and social media using its unique data science and multi-screen software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. To sustain the current and expected pace of innovation and near-triple-digit year-over-year growth, 4C also plans to add technical talent and sales resources.
'Brands need data science and media technology to capitalize on multi-screen convergence,' said Lance Neuhauser, CEO of 4C. 'We have a proven infrastructure to ingest and model data along with a robust SaaS platform to activate it across channels and screens. We expect strong growth through global expansion as we put our solutions in the hands of more brands, agencies and media owners.'
87 percent of consumers use personal electronic devices while watching TV according to Accenture's study, 'Digital Video and the Connected Consumer'. To capture attention, marketers require better ways to reach people with targeted messages. Accordingly, demand continues to rise for data-driven marketing technology. According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Global Entertainment and Media Outlook, total worldwide entertainment and media revenues will rise from $1.74 trillion in 2014 to $2.23 trillion in 2019.
4C's integrated platform for multi-screen analytics and activation harnesses the opportunity provided by synchronous media consumption. By utilizing its proprietary data science to help brands reach their most valuable audiences, 4C's marketing technology delivers coordinated messaging across screens in an automated execution. 4C also provides real-time metrics for measurement that capture the full media value and enable better, faster decision-making.
The company's solutions are built on more than 30 years of computational science research by Founder and Chief Scientist, Dr. Alok Choudhary, at prestigious institutions including Northwestern University. Its patented technology also leverages the Teletrax infrastructure and intellectual property acquired through Civolution following its spin-off from Royal Philips Electronics.
'4C addresses the gap created by splintered media consumption across channels and devices,' said Leon Chen. 'With our investment, the company is well-positioned to further accelerate growth by leveraging its global presence and large addressable market. In addition, we were attracted to 4C's talented team, commitment to SaaS technology, proprietary data science and strong client base.'
The funding is the latest in a series of significant moves from 4C. Recently the company announced it had hired Anupam Gupta as Chief Product Officer and Kevin Kearns as Chief Revenue Officer. In June, 4C announced that it has been named a Snapchat partner, which will give brands the ability to leverage 4C technology to access the 100+ million daily active users on the Snapchat platform. 4C also recently unveiled 4C University, providing training in its product suite and delivering institutional knowledge across TV and social media. In May, 4C announced a series of partnerships including Turner to target TV audiences utilizing social data, 20th Television to quantify the effectiveness of brand integrations, Groupe M6 to monitor broadcast assets, and Wide Orbit to activate social data through programmatic TV.
About 4C
4C is a global leader in data science and media technology with solutions for multi-screen convergence. Brands, agencies, and media owners use 4C to improve effectiveness across channels and devices. The 4C product suite includes activation on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat and Twitter as well as TV synced ads across digital display, mobile, search, social and video. The company also provides advertising and content analytics leveraging its Teletrax global TV monitoring network and proprietary social affinity database. Founded in 2011 and based in Chicago, 4C has staff in 17 worldwide locations across the United States, United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong, India, the Netherlands and Singapore. Visit www.4Cinsights.com for more information.
About Kayne Partners
Kayne Partners is a leading provider of capital and connections to rapidly growing companies in North America. Since its inception more than a decade ago, it has invested over $600 million in platform investments and add-on acquisitions. Kayne Partners seeks to partner with driven entrepreneurs as a non-control minority investor and provide transformative capital to these high growth companies. Kayne Partners is the growth private equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P. www.kaynepartners.com
About Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors
Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., founded in 1984, is a leading independent alternative investment management firm focused on niche investing in upstream oil and gas companies, energy infrastructure, specialized real estate, middle market credit, and growth private equity. Kayne's investment philosophy is to pursue niches, with an emphasis on cash flow, where its knowledge and sourcing advantages enable it to deliver above average, risk-adjusted investment returns. Kayne manages over $23 billion in assets (as of July 31, 2016) for institutional investors, family offices, high net worth and retail clients and employs nearly 300 professionals in eight offices across the United States. The firm is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Houston, New York City, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Atlanta and Boca Raton. For more information, please visit our website: www.kaynecapital.com.
For more information on this transaction, please contact Leon Chen at (310) 282-2834 or lchen@kaynecapital.com.
About Jump Capital
Jump Capital is a venture capital firm specializing in early and expansion stage investments in sectors that are historically underserved by technology. The firm has offices in Chicago, New York and San Francisco and typically makes investments between $2 and $15 million. Through its team of seasoned operators, Jump Capital provides advocacy and support complemented with institutional-level resources for entrepreneurs. www.jumpcap.com
About Prime Ventures
Prime Ventures is a leading venture capital and growth equity firm focused on investing in companies in the technology and related industries. The firm has invested in companies in the Benelux countries, Germany, France, Spain, United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and United States. From its offices in The Netherlands and the UK the independent partnership manages over half a billion euro in committed capital. Its portfolio company Civolution, in which Prime Ventures is the majority shareholder, has made the investment in 4C Insights. Civolution became a shareholder of 4C in 2015 after the acquisition of its Teletrax business. www.primeventures.com
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