This week, Chicago-based technology and advisory firm AdYapper announced the close of $4.5MM in Series-A funding led by KGC Capital, with participation from Techstars' Bullet Time Ventures, BW Capital, strategic angels, and existing investors.
The funding will support the expanding global reach of its performance optimization technology and MRC-accredited ad viewability platform; one that exclusively serves brands by eliminating non-working media and redeploying it where it can generate the most value.
'We believe AdYapper has the technology and approach to radically change the way brands buy media online,' said Richard Kiphart of KGC Capital. 'Since their inception, they have attracted leading brands who are looking for a more objective, transparent and profitable way to buy media that is actually seen by their intended audience.'
By allowing for brand-only access to its optimization services, AdYapper is disrupting an ad ecosystem profiting on opacity, high volume, and fraudulent or wasteful ad impressions.
'We've watched as new clients realize they've wasted hundreds of millions of dollars -- upwards of 80% of their media budgets -- on ads that generate no value and media partners that have no incentive to improve results,' said AdYapper CEO Elliot Hirsch. 'By working exclusively for brands, we provide them technology and objective analysis required to detect and act on these critical issues, all in real time.'
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Hirsch argues that the current fuel of the ad ecosystem -- ad impression volume -- encourages wasteful and partisan media spending by agencies and technology vendors alike, and that the current focus on viewability standards -- not business outcomes -- is an attempt to preserve a broken business model. In response, AdYapper has rejected the typical CPM fee model in favor of flat rates for its services. The move frees the firm to design optimization strategies that frequently include redirecting or eliminating budget assigned to vast amounts of non-working media, in addition to reporting unencumbered full-pipe data back to the brands AdYapper serves.
'Our promise to advertisers is to be a clear and independent source of optimization to their business objectives,' said Hirsch. 'Whether it's achieved by working exclusively for brands or making sure our investors sit out of the agency and vendor pool party, we're driving a new ecosystem fully focused on a vision of transparency and value creation for brands.'
About AdYapper
AdYapper is a Chicago-based media advisory firm that develops and operates proprietary technology and data forensics to create market advantages exclusively for brands. The firm deploys an accountability and transparency framework across a brand's digital media operations -- including agencies and vendors -- rapidly identifying media that doesn't return value to the business, then directing investment of recaptured budget where it can generate demonstrable increases in return-on-ad-spend and revenue. AdYapper optimizations are performed in real time, with no additional workload required from the brand, and can be deployed and operational in less than 24 hours.