Cavai, a conversational ad tech provider, has raised £6.5m from a range of prominent investors including Norway’s two largest venture players, Investinor and Idekapital, and ad tech industry specialist FirstPartyCapital.
The company plans to use the funds to bolster its offering in existing markets, develop its product portfolio, and expand in the US as it gets IPO-ready.
Alex Rahaman, a London based partner at Idekapital, who will join the board, said: “Conversational, digital advertising is the new, future-facing way for global advertisers to reach and very effectively engage with audiences. Ahead of huge changes in the industry, Cavai has been recognised as the leader in this space, with the most intuitive self-serve technology already adopted by major holding groups.
“We at Idekapital were very impressed with the speed and effectiveness with which Steffen and the Cavai team have built an international business and are delighted to be leading this round together with Investinor and other reputable international investors.”
Game-changer
Rich Ashton, managing partner, FirstPartyCapital, said: “Historically, creativity has been hard to automate and scale, which is perhaps why the ad industry has placed so much emphasis on hyper-targeting consumers through data, at the expense of the user experience. However, Cavai’s solution is a complete game-changer, enabling marketers to easily create highly-engaging online experiences that people actually want to interact with.
“The metrics speak for themselves: clients are seeing 10-20x ROAS, resulting in a 3x YoY revenue increase for the company. This opportunity was an absolute no-brainer for us. Steffen and the team have built the foundations of an iconic company, and we are extremely excited to help them achieve their goal of becoming one of the most successful ad tech companies of the decade.”
Cavai was founded in Oslo in 2018 and now has more than 60 employees globally, with offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, London, Singapore, Barcelona, Toronto and New York.
As the company continues its global expansion, it is developing next-generation, user-centric marketing solutions which enable one-to-one dialogue with consumers across a variety of formats, including video. Cavai will also be launching conversational e-commerce solutions which will integrate with local payment solutions providers and enable in-ad purchases.
Steffen Svartberg, founder and CEO of Cavai, said: “We are delighted to have found industry-focused investors that understand the huge changes that are happening within the marketplace, whilst having also found investment funds that can take us through multiple series of funding as we scale, compete on a truly global level and build up towards an IPO.”
“We have built a platform that is sustainable, with user experience baked into the core. Non-interruptive formats deliver insights whilst also guiding consumers, with brands such as Amazon, Nivea, and BMW leveraging our platform to great effect. Our client list includes 6 of the biggest media agencies in the world. With an exceptionally strong appetite for conversational advertising, Cavai has seen 3X revenue growth from H1 2020 to H1 2021.”
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