Scottish Investment Bank matches West Coast Capital investment in Scottish TV tech firm

The round was led by West Coast Capital, with matched funding from the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), Scottish Enterprise’s investment arm, along with existing investors.

Calum Smeaton, TVSquared’s CEO and founder, said: “Global TV advertising is continuing to grow at an astounding rate because TV is the most effective marketing channel.

“With 87 per cent of viewers watching with second-screen devices nearby, TV is now even more powerful as a primary driver of digital activity. This funding will help us continue to provide advertisers with the technology they need to optimize TV for the greatest response.”

Hundreds of brands, agencies and networks in more than 50 countries use TVSquared, which also has offices in New York, Los Angeles and London, to improve TV campaign efficiency by 20-80 per cent through measuring and optimizing TV, bolstering on-air spot performance, informing media plans and buys and realizing the total impact of TV.

According to David Briefstein, head of Comcast Ventures’ Accelerate program: “TV is a powerful customer acquisition tool, and we work closely with our portfolio companies to properly infuse it into their marketing mix. By using TVSquared to measure the impact of our TV spend, we are able to quickly optimize media plans to drive rapid improvements in response metrics, and scale spend accordingly.”

Lauren Pilon, director of marketing, offline and brand, at LendingTree, said: “TVSquared ADvantage gives us a ‘real-time’ eye on all of our TV campaigns. I have more confidence in what we’re doing than ever before, and one of the reasons for this can be attributed to our relationship with TVSquared.”

Paul Davidson, managing partner, West Coast Capital, who led the latest funding round, said: “TVSquared’s technology is being used by some of the world’s biggest brands to disrupt and measure the effectiveness of the $202 billion TV advertising market. This funding round positions TVSquared for continued growth and secures a world-class technology and team for that growth.”

Kerry Sharp, head of the Scottish Investment Bank, said: “TVSquared is another example of an ambitious technology company starting in Scotland, successfully operating in international markets and attracting further investment to support its continued growth. We look forward to working with TVSquared as it continues to innovate and increase market share.”

Chris van der Kuyl, TVSquared’s chairman, added: “This funding round supports TVSquared at a time when it’s growing rapidly as the gold-standard TV optimization and measurement platform among advertisers across the globe. We want to thank our existing investors for their continued backing, and welcome SIB onboard at this very exciting time for TVSquared.”