VideoAmp Closes $70M Round

VideoAmp today announced that it has raised $70 million in new funding led by The Raine Group, a leading global investment bank focused exclusively on media and technology. The Raine Group invested $50 million in this growth round of financing, with Ankona Capital contributing an additional $20 million. In conjunction with the round, media executive Peter Liguori, most recently the President and CEO of Tribune Media, will join the company as a Senior Advisor and join the Board of Directors. Erik Hodge, Managing Director and Head of the Raine Group's Los Angeles office, will also join the Board of Directors.

VideoAmp is transforming the advertising market wherein TV, OTT and digital video make up more than half of all brand marketing dollars spent. The company has realized net revenue growth of more than 700 percent over the past two years, and will use the new capital to scale its enterprise sales by expanding its customer success and data science teams to support growing demand from marketers, agencies and media owners. Despite being brands' largest expenditures, these marketing investments are still valued and optimized against how many people see an advertisement rather than the advertisement's impact on the marketer's desired business outcome.

"With more than $35 billion in TV, OTT and digital video advertising dollars not reaching their desired customer targets each year, the entire industry needs to evolve. By optimizing marketing investment to sales versus eyeballs, everyone wins. Marketers will generate more sales from their advertising dollars, media owners will better monetize their audiences, and consumers will enjoy premium video content with more relevant and fewer repetitive ads," said Ross McCray, Co-Founder & CEO, VideoAmp. "We are thrilled to complete this round of financing and to have The Raine Group and Ankona Capital as partners, which will allow us to rapidly expand our footprint as the leading independent platform that the industry needs right now.''

"The current media environment has created an ever increasing appetite among marketers and media owners for innovative video data & measurement solutions," said Mr. Hodge. "Of the emerging companies in the space, VideoAmp stands out for its product and technology team – led by an extremely talented and dedicated entrepreneur, Ross McCray. We are excited to back both Ross and VideoAmp on the company's next stage of rapid growth."

VideoAmp connects the dots between sales and ad exposure by privacy-safe identity matching of marketer's first party sales/conversion data and ad exposure data from multiple leading MVPDs, smart TV manufacturers, OTT services, mobile apps, and premium content providers. The software enables marketers and media owners to optimize their entire portfolio of linear TV, OTT and digital video advertising by measuring how the ads performed against in-market sales prospects. It then recommends optimizations and automates their execution to maximize return on marketing investment.

VideoAmp works with more than 50 leading Fortune 500 brands, as well as global holding companies, media agencies, and media owners such as: GroupM, Essence, Tyson Foods, Inc., A+E Networks, AMC Networks, and Tubi.

About VideoAmp
VideoAmp is transforming the way brand marketing and media is valued, bought, and sold. The majority of TV, OTT and digital video advertising is valued by how many people saw an ad versus whether or not the ad impacted the marketer's desired business outcome. This results in massive waste and lost opportunities. VideoAmp gets a true read of advertising performance by connecting the dots in a privacy safe way with marketers' first party sales/conversion data and ad exposure. We empower marketers and media owners to impact their sales by optimizing their entire portfolio of linear TV, OTT and digital video advertising through proprietary software that recommends smarter strategies to maximize return on investment. This delivers more value to the marketers, the media owners and ultimately the consumer. VideoAmp optimizes over $10 billion a year of marketing investment and is backed by The Raine Group, Ankona Capital, Mediaocean, RTL Group and six other leading venture capital groups. For the second year in a row, VideoAmp was voted one of Inc. Magazine's Best Places to Work for 2019. For more information, visit VideoAmp.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

About The Raine Group
The Raine Group is a global merchant bank focused exclusively on technology, media, and telecommunications. The firm has offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, and Mumbai. With a global reach, Raine focuses on investment and advisory opportunities where its deep industry experience and unique network of strategic relationships can create value for portfolio companies and clients. For more information, visit http://www.raine.com.

About Ankona Capital
Ankona Capital invests in SaaS companies "at the elbow" – companies with proven products and markets that are poised for growth. Ankona partners with management teams to scale operations by leveraging the deep operating experience of their partners. Ankona is based in Newport Beach, CA and works with companies across North America. For more information, visit http://www.ankonacap.com.

About Peter Liguori
Liguori most recently served as the President and CEO of Tribune Media and has held board positions with Yahoo! and MGM. He also served as the COO of Discovery Communications, the CEO of FX Networks and the Chairman of Fox Entertainment, bringing a wealth of experience to the company around advertising across traditional television and digital media.