Video adtech startup company Carambola Media recently closed its Series A investment round, which was led by Pitango Venture Capital. The investment round, which raised USD4 million, was participated by existing investors and new ones 2B Angels, Plus Ventures and Rutledge Vine Capital. Carambola earlier raised USD1 million in seed funding in July this year.
The Israeli startup has build a platform that automates the process of making online videos interactive. As explained in a TechCrunch article, Carambola scans the video and determines the contextually relevant additional content for users to also interact with by using proprietary algorithms. The platform, in a sense, does away with the need for an administrator entering interactive content manually into the ad unit. As such, said a TechCrunch report, Carambola makes augmenting video with additional content to encourage more eyeballs to the said video easier. Viewers, in effect, will be able to see contextual quizzes, e-commerce offers, recommendations for recipes or other related information regarding the video content. Carambola's business model lies on the belief that interactive content engages the user more as oppose to traditional video ads like interstitials or pre-roll.
Carambola said proceeds from the new funding will go towards the opening of a US office and to help the company scale its product offering. The Israeli startup is expecting to engage in more partnerships with large-scale publishers like AOL, and brands the following year. AOL has adopted Carambola's technology for its Spot On video ad unit that was launched in August. AOL said that its partnership with Carambola had grown deeper.
Pitango Managing General Partner Rami Beracha, who recently joined Carambola's board due to its significant investment, said, "(Online video advertising is) an exponentially growing market. Carambola's platform trigger users to engage with video and enable advertisers to get user's full attention. We believe in Carambola's strong team and in the ingenuity lead by the company."
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