Intelligent Video Solutions (iVS), a video advertising enablement platform for Southeast Asia brands, has closed an oversubscribed US$3.2-million pre-Series B round led by Singapore-based Tin Men Capital.
Other investors are Philippines-headquartered Kickstart Ventures, besides Singapore’s Vulpes and SG Innovate.
The company will use the investment to foray into new territories in the Asia Pacific, namely Japan and Australia. iVS will also onboard more talent, including senior executive positions, in the coming weeks to aid this expansion strategy.
Established in 2016, iVS employs AI and machine learning to enable better monetisation opportunities and consumer engagement for publishers and advertisers in Southeast Asia.
It enables publishers to deliver and optimise their video advertising inventory without giving up control and customer ownership to third-party video platforms.
“We help local publishers and broadcasters retain independence and monetisation leverage while offering advertisers brand-safe in-stream video ad inventory at scale across markets,” said Hari Shankar, chief revenue officer of iVS.
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The startup counts publishers such as the Philippines’s ABS-CBN, The Manila Times and Singapore’s Mothership, global media agencies such as Publicis, Dentsu, IPG, and brands such as Disney Plus, Netflix and Spotify, among its clientele.
iVS also improves viewer experience and video ads’ effectiveness through embedded (non-invasive) and engaging ads targeted contextually or through first-party data of individual viewer preference. This is also based on the advertising-based video on demand (AVOD) service model, where the revenue is earned from platforms or advertising agencies instead of users.
So far, the startup claims to serve more than 100 million unique visitors with access to over one billion premium video ad impressions per month.
iVS CEO and Tin Men Capital co-founder echo the opinions that there are large untapped opportunities in the Asia Pacific’s AVOD market. According to Digital TV Research, global AVOD revenue is predicted to expand significantly and reach US$56 billion by 2024 with the rise of advertising technology. This explains iVS’s recent launching of an in-stream video advertising marketplace in Southeast Asia, which aims to increases video inventory available to advertisers.
“Our focus remains on building out a business model with fully aligned incentives between media companies and vendors. This remains an ongoing challenge in markets where CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) are low, while costs of delivery are broadly the same as in mature markets like the US or Europe,” added Milan Reinartz, chief executive officer of iVS.
Since its last funding round in February 2019, iVS’s net revenue is reported to grow by 537 per cent despite the pandemic-induced slowdowns.
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Image credit: iVS
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