CTV Ad Platform tvScientific raises $20 million

tvScientific, a performance advertising platform built for the connected TV (CTV), announced that it has raised $20 million in Series A funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners. NBCUniversal and Hearst Ventures also participated in the round. 

The company plans to use the funding to grow its customer base, hire for key roles in engineering, product, data science, marketing, sales and other departments, and continue innovating the product in support of the company’s mission of making TV accessible, measurable and performant for all businesses.

“Advertisers have always coveted the reach and engagement of television, but the medium’s immeasurability has made it inaccessible to all but the biggest brands,” said Jason Fairchild, co-founder and CEO of tvScientific. “We’ve unlocked the awesome power of television for all types of advertisers by simplifying and automating CTV buying and optimization while leveraging massive data to prove the value of TV advertising.”

The latest funding brought the company’s total amount raised to $23 million, including a $3 million seed round from IdealabX, AperiamVentures, and angel investors from companies such as Yahoo!, Kabam, Integral Ad Science, GoFundMe and others.

“The reality is that the $72 billion U.S. television advertising market is dominated by fewer than 500 national advertisers,” said Jeff Crowe, managing partner, Norwest Venture Partners. “CTV opens the door for many new advertisers to pursue performance advertising in an effective and cost-efficient way. tvScientific has practically eliminated the friction in CTV advertising and made it far easier for businesses of all sizes to buy CTV inventory with the control, measurement and accountability they’re accustomed to getting from search and social channels.”

Last week, tvScientific announced the launch of its CTV performance advertising solution for the games industry. The company said in the announcement that the platform has already driven more than 1 million game installs during beta testing, at an average Cost Per Install (CPI) rate of $1.90 and an average Day-7 Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) of 1.25X.