Tru Optik, a leading provider of cookie-less audience segmentation and over-the-top audience targeting, has closed a $1.7 million venture financing led by Greenwich, Conn.-based angel investor Alex Blum and Progress Ventures of Cambridge, MA and New York, NY.
Progress Ventures has a proven track record of investing early in innovative digital media technology companies such as MediaMath, Pixability, Localytics and Integral Ad Science. Nick MacShane led the investment for Progress Ventures. Alex Blum, a former AOL executive and board member of Admeld (acquired by Google for $400 million in 2011), is a co-investor and has also been named chairman of Tru Optik's board of directors.
'This financing allows us to meet the explosive demand for Tru Optik's audience measurement and targeting solutions, which are proving to be invaluable to the growing Over-the-Top TV ecosystem,' said Andre Swanston, CEO and co-founder of Tru Optik. 'Over the past two years we have developed relationships with some of the world's largest media companies and advertisers and we are prepared to continue on our path to being the leader in over-the-top audience acquisition and content monetization.'
Leveraging the world's largest census-level proprietary dataset of cookie-less digital media consumption, Tru Optik powers digital audience measurement and end-to-end ad targeting solutions for the entertainment industry, media companies, and leading millennial and multicultural brands.
Along with haven provided audience measurement or targeting for companies including Scripps Networks, Sony Pictures, Sling TV, Crackle, and several of the world's leading agencies; Tru Optik has been routinely recognized for the value and uniqueness of its solutions, from being named Gartner Cool Vendor in 2014 to most recently being named 2015 OTT Product of the Year at the OTT Executive Summit.
'Alex Geis the CTO and co-founder of Tru Optik is an expert in cookie-less audience segmentation and big data science,' said Alex Blum, Tru Optik's Chairman. 'The Tru Optik team has developed a strategic asset in the millennial-fueled transition of traditional linear television to over-the-top television. This investment ensures Tru Optik will have the resources necessary to support the rapid scaling needs of their business.'
Tru Optik has recently expanded its sales and marketing organization and has developed an advisory board to better represent its growing client base across key verticals. The new board includes founders and executives with a combined $5 billion in media and ad tech related exits over the past decade; as well as senior-level CPG and agency leaders who will help Tru Optik leverage its technology and data advantages in the OTT market, helping guide the evolution of Tru Optik's products and services as the company enters its next phase of growth.
About Tru Optik:
Tru Optik is a trailblazer in data driven millennial audience and consumer monetization. Armed with the largest census level audience measurement of global OTT media consumption, Tru Optik uses interest and behavior segmentation to empower brands, media companies and agencies to deliver targeted advertising and experiences to millennials and multicultural audiences across all channels. Tru Optik is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., and was founded in 2013.