Consumer Data Startup Eyeota Lands $7M Series A For International Growth

Eyeota, an ad-targeting and consumer data startup based in Singapore, will grow its technology platform and international offices after raising a $7 million Series A. Investors include Global Brain Corporation, Infinity e.Ventures, and Project A Ventures.

Founder and chief executive officer Kevin Tan says its new capital will allow Eyeota to expand into new markets and ensure its platform can adapt to changes in the ad-tech industry and integrate into more media buying platforms. The startup has raised $10 million so far.

Eyeota’s clients currently include the biggest media holding companies in the world (WPP, Omnicom, Dentsu Aegis Network, Publicis, Interpublic, and Havas) and about 5,000 advertisers.

Eyeota has created profiles for 1.5 billion individual consumers around the world, with information about demographics, past purchases, and what kind of online media they use. The data is gathered from more than 30,000 publishers, e-commerce sites, and telecoms, as well as offline sources and data partners such as Experian and Roy Morgan Research.

Tan was previously a senior executive at online advertising platform Adify, which was purchased by media conglomerate Cox Enterprises in 2008 for more than $300 million. While working at Cox after the acquisition, Tan saw a “surge of growth in programmatic advertising and audience-based targeting around the world, but a lack of strong audience data in international markets.” He founded Eyeota in 2010 with other former members of Adify’s management team to solve that problem.

Eyeota competes with platforms and companies like Oracle Data Cloud, Nielsen, and Liveramp, which also aggregate huge amounts of consumer data. Tan says his startup’s edge, however, is being able to provide clients with detailed audience information from Asia, Europe, and Australia (the startup has offices in Sydney and Tokyo, in addition to Singapore).