Verto Analytics raises $13.4 million for consumer audience measurement

Verto Analytics, the consumer-centric audience measurement company, has raised $13.4 million in financing to help media buyers, publishers, brands, and others make better decisions about where to put their advertising money across all digital platforms.

While there are a lot of companies that do analytics, Helsinki, Finland-based Verto argues that big, traditional measurement companies rely on broken methodologies that fail to provide a holistic view of consumers. Since starting in 2013, Verto has focused on a single-source, panel-based, cross-platform solution to address this problem.

Conor Venture Partners, Open Ocean Capital, and Finnish Industry Investment led the investment round, with participation from Steve Farella, chairman of MDC Media, and Steve Marshall, CEO of Invision. The investors also includes industry executives such as Ben Feder, head of investments for Tencent; and Tom Glocer, board member of Morgan Stanley and former CEO of Thomson Reuters.

Verto focuses on modeling how consumers interact with apps on mobile devices, PCs, and other platforms. The company evaluates path-to-purchase modeling, segmentation studies, and ad effectiveness solutions. It wants to provide deeper consumer insights and competitive intelligence. Verto will use the new capital to fuel continued growth in the media measurement market, boost its customer success program, strengthen its commercial account management, and build up its Helsinki-based Verto Data Lab.

Above: The hot match-3 games

“There is a huge need for better and more independent audience measurement in the market, as media companies need to validate their cross-platform audience structure and size, and brands need to understand how competing media properties and digital touch points drive consumers on the path-to-purchase,” said Hannu Verkasalo, CEO of Verto, in an email to VentureBeat. “We have the luxury of working with the top technology companies in the world who drive us at the cutting edge of innovation in this area, and with the new growth round of funding we are well positioned to continue growing and investing into new solutions in this area.”

He added, “The new round will equip us with capital for deals and investments that will ultimately help launch new services, improve customer operations, and penetrate new segments where Verto’s cross-platform audience measurement data is needed. With some of our trusted previous investors joining this round, together with a healthy influx of new investors, we are well positioned to continue growing our business within key target verticals as well as shift focus towards brands, advertisers, and agencies, taking measurable steps to keep customers at the center of our attention.”

Above: Time spent in shopping apps.

Over five years, Verto Analytics has built up clients in the U.S. and United Kingdom that include Microsoft, Intel, Google, Netflix, CNN, and Kargo.

Verto has added a suite of new syndicated research services and picked up three patents. It has applications for 13 additional patents in the U.S. and Europe.

“Audience measurement used to be focused solely on high-level metrics like reach, frequency, engagement, and the solutions were very siloed by nature,” said MDC’s Farella, an investor in this round and new member of Verto’s advisory board, in a statement. “In turn, what Verto has demonstrated with their solution and already impressive set of clients, is something I think will be the norm in the future — integrated, single-source, cross-platform measurement. Verto’s solutions can help media buyers make data-driven decisions on marketing strategies, digital touchpoint planning, and understand how to reach consumers exactly at the right point, with the right messaging in a cross-platform world. I am delighted to get involved and help Verto’s team succeed now and in the future.”

The new round will equip Verto with capital to do deals and investments that will ultimately help it create new services, improve customer operations, and penetrate to new segments where Verto’s cross-platform audience measurement data is needed.

“Our uniqueness is that we measure in the same service PCs, smartphones, tablets, ebook readers, consoles, smart speakers, smart TVs, linear TV,” Verkasalo said. “We measure all media consumption, including apps, web, search, social, streaming,  gaming, and advertising.”

This type of third-party, independent, audience measurement service is needed more than ever, amid industry concerns that not all the data coming from ad platforms or directly from publishers is reliable or comparable. Moreover, even the biggest Internet giants need outside data to help them understand what happens off their platform.

Before the latest round, Verto had raised $25 million. It has 75 employees.