Alumnus Locomizer partners with TAPTAP Networks

Collider alumnus Locomizer, a provider of location analytics technologies, announced a partnership to enrich TAPTAP’s Sonata Ad platform today. TAPTAP Networks is the largest independent mobile advertising company in Spain and Latin America.

Locomizer’s proprietary algorithm uses geo-data in a combination with points of interest (POI) data as its input. These are then converted into individual geo-behavioural user interest profiles – a new way to interpret, store and use positional information. User interest profiles are created with Locomizer’s behavioural model, which was developed through studying cell movements and interactions in live systems. This model analyses user’s behaviour to understand real-life interests and preferences, making it ideal for matching with relevant services and offers.

“Our ability to translate geo-data into a very sophisticated set of user-interest-profiles and distinctive segments has a natural fit with the mobile advertising world” said Alexei Poliakov, Locomizer co-founder and chief scientist. “We are delighted about the partnership with TAPTAP and thrilled to see that the trial campaign was so successful. It translates now into a commercial proposition to advertisers and marketers”.

SONATA is the first global mobile advertising platform aimed at brands and local advertisers seeking local contextual awareness, increased physical store footfall and in-store analytics. Built mobile-first by former retailers and AdTech experts, Sonata’s technology leverages geo-enabled devices such as smartphones and tablets, socio-contextual signals, and in-store audience data, enabling attribution between local contextual advertising and real-time, in-store foot traffic data.

“Physical presence provided by opt-in users through their mobile devices convey the same information that legacy cookies on the internet once did," said Alvaro del Castillo, CEO and founder of TAPTAP Networks. "As mobile usage takes over the internet cookies become irrelevant and presence signals allow for the creation of geo-behavior profiles that both global brands and local advertisers value in order to drive people through the purchase funnel. Locomizer’s bio-enabled proposition truly enhances our ability for out of the box mobile audience profiling."

Congratulations to Alexei, Alex and Roman! We're looking forward to following your expansive journey into new markets and becoming industry leaders.

The Digital Business Academy Goes Live

  We like getting involved in interesting projects. Especially ones involving everything digital. It goes hand in hand with investing in some of the most innovative companies in the marketing and advertising (or Madtech as we call it) industry. And that’s where our news this week comes from.

TechCity UK has just publically launched the Digital Business Academy (or DBA) – an online portal for young professionals to gain the necessary skills to start, grow, or work for digital startups. They’ve partnered with UCL, Founder Centric and the University of Cambridge to bring you, yes you, the best content on everything from sizing up your idea to building your brand to mastering the finances of our digital business. The Guardian identified the UK will need 750,000 skilled digital workers by 2017. But when the number of computer science graduates is dropping, how does one fix this? By making education accessible. Oh, did we mention the courses are free in the UK?

How is Collider involved? We’re offering a ‘milkround’ to all graduates of the programme. Similar to a job fair, but less intimidating, these grads will benefit from access to innovative products changing the face of the marketing and advertising worlds – our alumni.

“The DBA is filling a skills gap in the digital industry,” Rose Lewis, our Co-Founder and ring-leader mentions. “The DBA helps with more than just coding: from community management to sales and marketing in digital, these are emerging job opportunities where the skill set is still undefined and underdeveloped. You won’t find a programme so accessible and with such high quality content elsewhere at the moment.”

That spare time this weekend you were going to spend watching videos of cats on Youtube? Why not learn how to market and analyse viral videos instead? Who knows, you might just get more out of it than those aww-spiring cat videos. Happy Friday!

Crowdfunding Complete for the Class of 2015!

It’s been quite a week here at Collider – never a dull moment! As the excitement from Ad:Tech London cooled down, it was time for the Collider team to pull together and begin filing through the applications for the Class of 2015. Applications for the programme are open until November 10^th, make sure you get your applications in before the deadline (and even share with your friends now)!

In other news, our Seedrs campaign has come to a successful close! As of Wednesday evening, only 13 days after launch, the marketing and advertising industry pulled together to collectively raise over £330,000! Investments ranged from £100 to £55,000 per person and over 60 individuals participated.

Investors of note include media guru Mat Morrison and CEO of Havas Media, Paul Frampton. Senior advertising executives from Ogilvy and WeAreSocial also invested in the Class of 2015. Some investors will further be actively involved in the mentoring process with the startups during the programme. They will also draw on industry connections and expertise to further supercharge the startups.

“The response from the marketing and advertising professionals has been overwhelmingly positive,” Rose Lewis, Co-founder of Collider said. “We’re encouraging them to invest in the future of their industry through startups, and they jumped at the chance.”

Each of the 10 startups will receive £50K in exchange for 11% equity. A hand-picked 5 of the 10 will receive £100K follow-up funding for a further 11%. Half of the funds from the Seedrs campaign will go towards the first round of funding and the other half will go towards the second round, with all of the investors’ money being distributed evenly between all the startups.

In short, high praise goes to the marketing and advertising industry! They took the challenge head on and took an active role in shaping the future of their industry through emerging tech - their efforts paid off! The Class of 2015 has a group of mentors and investors behind it this year who have an envious track record, with even more brands signed up to help transform these products by acting as first market validators (more on this later). Things are moving quickly – this year will be bigger and better and we’re waiting impatiently to getting this race going…

Look out ad:tech London!

The Collider office is buzzing this morning as we prepare for the ad:tech London Conference happening today and tomorrow in the heart of the city. Europe’s most innovative brands, media owners, agencies and tech providers will be attending- and we’re bringing the best of the UK’s Madtech start-up talent. We’ve got a couple of exciting opportunities to share about this afternoon as well. 24 of the UK’s finest start-ups will have the opportunity to meet 70+ professionals from Unilever in a speed dating session. This event is 3X as large as any of our previous speed dating sessions and we’re excited to see what sorts of innovative collisions will happen this afternoon.

Secondly, we are hosting The Next Big Thing final pitching event in conjunction with Unilever and tech2brand. 8 start-ups, 4 senior corporate judges, 3 minute pitches, 2 minute Q&A, and 1 final winner. Follow the progress of the event on Twitter at #adtech_London.

Stay connected to our social media for updates throughout the day and we will be back tomorrow with the exciting results!

Collider has moved to a room with a view

We've moved to a new office space! We're now at the brand new WeWork shared office space behind the Oxo Tower. We're a friendly bunch, so if you'd like to learn more about how we can help you accelerate your madtech startup business, drop us a line and book in a chat with one of us. If you're debating whether to apply for our 2015 programme - contact us now and we can help answer any questions you might have. You only have to look at companies like Seenit, Beem and CampaignAmp to see some of the wonderful things that our startups are achieving. For more information on our 2015 programme and the £150k of equity investment up for grabs.

A shared-space room with a view. 

Coffee and beer on tap & the games area - you have every reason to visit us!

What it's all about - the great startup community.