Adelaide raises $1.4 million, acquires marketing insights company Rita

Adelaide, an attention-based media quality measurement startup, has raised an additional $1.4 million in a seed-extension round led by AperiamVentures. The fresh capital infusion also saw participation from new investors, GOAL Ventures and industry veteran Nishat Mehta, along with continued support from existing backers like BlueTree and Human Ventures. This funding round is set to accelerate Adelaide’s product development and support its expanding global team.

The company also announced the acquisition of Rita, a privacy-friendly marketing insights company. This all-stock deal is set to bolster Adelaide’s capabilities by integrating Rita’s deterministic behavioral data, ad exposure analytics, and outcome measurement into its models. As part of the acquisition, John Arts, CEO of Rita, will join Adelaide along with his key team of developers and data scientists, bringing their expertise to Adelaide’s expanding operations.

Rita has harnessed EU data regulations to create a robust data ecosystem sourced from a rapidly expanding community of 200,000 members. By incentivizing users to share insights into their online activities on major platforms like Google, Amazon, and Facebook, Rita offers a unique value proposition. Through its app, Rita empowers individuals to exercise their Right to Access (RTA), giving them the ability to view, control, and even monetize the data collected by tech giants. Leveraging this rich dataset, Rita has developed advanced AI and analytics products, delivering competitive insights to prominent brands such as Skyscanner, Just-Eat, and HelloFresh.

Adelaide, on the other hand, has become a key player in the advertising industry, providing innovative solutions that allow brands to measure and optimize media spend with unparalleled precision. By leveraging machine learning and attention metrics, Adelaide’s AU (Attention Unit) omnichannel media quality metric covers a vast array of advertising platforms, including display, social, and CTV, among others. This comprehensive approach has garnered the trust of nearly half of the Fortune 50 companies, solidifying Adelaide’s reputation as a leader in media quality measurement.

Joe Zawadzki, General Partner at AperiamVentures, expressed strong confidence in Adelaide’s future, stating, “Adelaide is transforming the way media quality is measured, and we are excited to support their continued innovation. Our investment reflects our belief in Adelaide’s potential to fundamentally reshape the advertising landscape.”

Marc Guldimann, CEO and Founder of Adelaide, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the company’s mission to enhance media quality measurement. “This funding will enable us to refine our media quality metrics even further, contributing to a healthier and more transparent media ecosystem. We’re excited to have AperiamVentures alongside us as we continue to lead the way in attention-based measurement.”

Adelaide’s total funding has now reached nearly $8 million, thanks to the recent $1.4 million seed funding extension, according to Guldimann. The company initially secured $2 million from angel investors in 2021 and later announced a $7 million seed round in 2022. However, due to market volatility, Adelaide opted not to complete the full raise at that time, Guldimann explained.