Collider completes £1M Investment into Class of 2015 Startups

Collider, the leading MadTech Accelerator in London, completes their Class of 2015 investment with a second round of £550,000 into six of the most promising marketing and adtech (also known as MadTech) startups from the Collider Class of 2015. After Collider’s Class of 2015 Demo Day at the end of April, these startups were hand-picked by the individual investors to receive up to £100,000 follow-on funding as part of the Collider Accelerator programme. They will now participate in a further 8-month long programme. This is geared towards high growth and preparing the founders to raise a late seed to Series A funding round in 2016. This programme will focus on getting the startups initial traction through commercial trials and deals.

Rose Lewis, Co-Founder of Collider says; “We have found a gap in startup funding which exists between seed and Series A. This is where a significant number of startups fail. This second round of funding will give these amazing MadTech startups the runway they need to gain the necessary traction to raise series A more quickly.”

These six companies have founders from around the world including; Israel, Slovenia, the UK, USA, Australia, Hungary who have all chosen the UK as their company headquarters. The startups solve enduring problems big brands and agencies face on the customer journey including; brick-and-mortar retail analytics, short form video, tracking ‘dark social’ sharing and targeted mobile advertising.

The six selected startups:

[one_third] [/one_third] Brandvee is an audience development platform for media brands that finds, tracks and targets the most influential customers who drive conversion.

[one_third][/one_third] Burst makes big data from little videos and have built the world’s first social video analytics platform which helps organisations understand how to spend more effectively on short-form video.

[one_third][/one_third] Pixoneye  uses people’s photos and videos that they have stored on their mobile devices in order to extract very clever data about them, completely anonymously. By understanding the user through their photos we are able to serve the right ad to the right user no matter what app they are using!

[one_third][/one_third] Real Life Analytics enables targeted advertising on any digital screen. Using patented visual recognition technology we can enable every screen to recognise who is in front of it and serve them exactly the right targeted content in milliseconds.

[one_third][/one_third] Storesense interprets customer journeys in traditional brick-and-mortar stores using passive Wi-Fi. Our advanced proprietary algorithms drive actionable retail advice – from low traffic zone warnings and optimal in-store advertising position suggestions to the best locations for resting areas.

[one_third][/one_third] SyncSpot harnesses the power of entertainment to move people by offering exclusive content that can only be accessed once a customer is at a specific location.

How can MadTech brands & agencies stay ahead?

** This article first appeared in The Drum **

Two weeks ago, we held the Collider Class of 2015 Demo Day. Almost 200 people came to see a showcase of the best global marketing and adtech startups in central London, and give the audience an overview of where the industry is heading. Nine startups, six minutes each, four panellists, three co-founders and one UK trending hashtag. We worked tirelessly to make sure the right people were in the room to have effective synergy.

We brought together people from all of London’s biggest and best brands and agencies. From Aegis, Camelot, dunnhumby, Haymarket, Havas Media, Ogilvy & Mather Group UK, and many more, these individuals were some of the first in their organisations to be fully immersed in innovation. They were not only passive observers, but active engagers. They also inadvertently participated in two powerful, culture shifts:

They were being exposed to some of the best relevant tech to their industries The theme of our Demo Day was to ‘inspire confidence’. We wanted people to feel comfortable in thinking outside the box, not be afraid to ask questions and imagine ways in which they could integrate new tech and working styles into their companies. People had to be ready to think critically about what they were seeing, but not make critical judgements. We encouraged thinking about how these startups could fit into long-term strategy – about the returns in years’ time as opposed to months. And because the audience was so responsive, brands and agencies approached our startups and set up meetings straight away.

They were in a space with their competition, learning with them and getting to know them One of the things Collider is trying to incorporate into the culture of the marketing and advertising industry is the idea of collaboration. One of the forms this comes in is working with a third party, like us, to provide outside expertise. And sometimes that means coming face to face with your competition. We currently have three different agencies signed up as partners. Everyone is constantly learning from their competition – either in formal talks or informal coffee chats. It is great to see agencies coming together in ways they wouldn’t have three years ago. This is a measurable change in the industry mindset.

I am a big advocate of serendipity – taking the chance that you will be able to find answers to your problems in unexpected places. Half the battle is knowing where to look, even if you don’t know what to look for.

We are building one solution to this – by bringing the right people together at the right time and giving each party the tools to have effective conversations. It’s called MadTech.

Introducing: Powr of You

[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

**We will be profiling each company joining Collider’s Class of 2015. Take the time to learn a bit more about them and keep an eye on what’s to come over the next few months!**

[/spb_text_block] [spb_single_image image="14181" image_size="full" frame="noframe" intro_animation="none" full_width="no" lightbox="no" link_target="_self" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="first"]

Who are you and what do you do?

Powr of You is a data marketplace for consumers and brands to learn and earn from each other.

With Powr of You, Consumers learn about their online footprint and quantified self through beautiful visualizations, while they earn rewards with our revenue share model. Brands learn about their consumers' cross-platform habits, interests, media consumption to make data backed decisions to improve marketing ROI. Brands also earn consumer confidence and loyalty by being consumer privacy champions.

Our consumer facing site is live at www.powrofyou.com and the brand analytics site is in beta being developed alongside pilot partners.

Who are your co-founders & give us one line about each of you!

We are a brother-sister duo. Our quest to answer the question "Why don't we [consumers] get paid for all the data we create?" led us to create Powr of You.

Keshav is a tech geek, a recent alumnus from London Business School with strategy and risk consulting background at Deloitte prior to his MBA and at LinkedIn and Telefonica during the MBA.

Shruti brings ideas and solutions to reality, with over seven years experience spanning strategy, operations and technology consulting with Accenture focused on Consumer Goods, Healthcare and Retail, before and after an MBA from London Business School.

Where in the world are your headquarters?

Headquarters are London, UK

What excites you most about London (one startup point and one non-startup point!)?

London has a bursting startup scene and that brings a lot of excitement, visibility and support for early stage startups. On a more personal note, it’s a new home for us. After living in India and the San Francisco Bay Area for most of our life, we weren’t expecting to love a city as much as we love London, in all its flavours of people, industries, and culture.

[/spb_text_block] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/2" el_position="last"]

What insight (competitive advantage, new perspective etc.) are you bringing to the Madtech industry?

Data is the currency of tomorrow. And that’s what we’re helping people enterprise on by building Powr of You. We are changing the Madtech industry by bringing consumers to the table. Instead of being unknowing bystanders, we are giving people an active role to understand and realize value from their data footprint. People also have the opportunity to view their own lifestyle in a quantified way to understand their own online brand and habits through personal insights.

On the other hand, we’re truly bringing marketers closer to their consumers. We’re using consumer’s opt-in data to drive up-to-date, accurate, cross-platform insights about consumer behaviour to improve the return on their marketing investment by being more relevant to their consumers.

What is one challenge you have had to overcome since beginning your journey?

The biggest challenge was building something with our big vision in mind but in a resource constrained setup. In our professional careers there has been an abundance of resources to tap into, which is starkly different than our startup journey.

Tell us about how Collider can (and hopefully will) help you over the next four months.

We are very excited to be part of the Collider 2015 Cohort! It has been an invaluable chance for us to sit across the table from client decision makers of major brands and agencies, Unilever, Ogilvy, Camelot, and Havas Media - to name a few. Simply put, Collider has propelled us significantly towards finding the product-market fit rapidly through exposure to their brand and agency partners, their mentors, and their investors.

We started the program, and continue, with the thought: "Let's do this!"

Here's a funny fact you didn't know about us!

We both love to dance, especially Bollywood.

[/spb_text_block]

A Wrap-Up to the MadTech Event of the Year

Collider Demo Day Class of 2015 from seenit on Vimeo.

Congratulations to the Collider Class of 2015 startups, who last week crushed the MadTech event of the year - Demo Day! With over 175 people in attendance and leading the MadTech charge from across the marketing, advertising, and investing communities, it was an event not to be missed! But if you couldn't make it, fear not - we've compiled a wrap-up of the event. And there's much more exciting news to come...

Visionary and Co-Founder Rose welcomed the audience to the MadTech event of the year. She explained where Collider started, how we have evolved over the past three years, and what everyone is the audience could do to help build the London MadTech Community - become a MadTech advocate beginning with a conversation or an introduction.

Each startup had 6 minutes on stage to inspire the audience - explain who they are, what they're doing and why they are solving a problem you should care about. Warm introductions from our brand and investor partners made it an easy transition for the founders to the bright lights.

And the startup announced as having the Winning Pitch is... Pixoneye! The audience voted using an online voting tool Sli.do, and collectively agreed Ofri's pitch was the easiest to understand, and had the most interest both commercially and financially. Congrats to the Pixoneye team up on stage with Collider!

And what's next for Collider? Well, as Co-Founder Andy mentioned, as MadTech doesn't stop, Collider won't either. Year-round applications and two programmes per year, it's non-stop innovation in the heart of London! Applications are open on F6S now!

One Month to the Class of 2015 Demo Day!

Clear your calendar - it's going down! The Collider Class of 2015 Demo Day kicks off on April 23rd at 2:30PM, and we want you there. No, we need you there. Because this is going to be the MadTech event of the year - and you are the people who make it extraordinary. Come see nine of the hottest Marketing and Adtech startups from around the world showcasing how they're changing the MadTech industry. 

The Class of 2015 has spent the past four months running from brand meetings to coaching sessions, to workshops on everything from Purpose, positioning and personality, to prising and praising (and business development, UX, UI, and hiring for ones not beginning with P). And they've made progress. From having just an MVP at the beginning of 2015, by the middle of Q2, they have trials lined up with some of the world's largest brands.

Catch a senior brand or agency creative, innovative startups or a seasoned Angel for a drink in the evening. It's going to be great.

Confirmed panellists include:

Sarah Wood, COO Unruly Media                                                                                     Emily Forbes, CEO Seenit

Paul Frampton, CEO Havas Media                                                                                   Rod Banner, Agent of Change

Gabbi Cahane, CEO Meanwhile