Brainient pockets $1.8M for personalized video ads

As more brands look at improving their online video ads, Brainient focuses on interaction elements

Online video content has a very bright future. As more people are turning to their mobile and Internet devices to watch video content, more innovative online video advertising options are gearing for serious growth.

One such company, Brainient, has just landed $1.8 million to fund its growth in monetizing video content online.

Led by the Prague-based Credo Ventures, and with the additional support of Atlas Ventures and Estag Capital, Brainient will use this new capital to expand the company’s client services and technology teams. First on the list is the expansion of offices in London and Bucharest and opening a office in New York.

Since one of Brainient’s main focuses is increasing the engagement and performance of video ads via BrainRolls, the company is already gearing up to boost the client awareness of CTR rates for interactive media ads in order to make the most of the short windows that brands have to convert the captive audience online.

The company states that, of the 100 campaigns served this year (for customers like Samsung, Volvo, Canon, GetTheLabel and GlassesDirect), the interactive BrainRolls three to five times higher CTRs than non- interactive pre-rolls. They also saw the click-to-sale conversion rates of up to 10% with Brainient’s personalized video retargeting platform -- called BrainAds.

The UK-based video advertising technology company' Co-founder and CEO, Emi Gal, believes that the markets they have been focusing on, in the U.S., U.K. and Germany, will continue to be the largest video markets with the greatest area for growth and innovation.  

“We believe that Brainient’s products will help advertisers increase the effectiveness of their video advertising campaigns while improving the viewing experience for consumers," said Ondrej Bartos, Partner at Credo Ventures, in a statement. 

Founded in 2009, Brainient claims that 98% of its customers come back for more personalized work every month. 

Video advertising has quickly become the go-to area for online revenue since more people are looking for places that house all the content they want to watch on-demand. 

While advertising, in general, is expected to increase 20% to $31 billion in 2012, according to eMarketer, online video is expected to grow more than twice as fast, or 52%. 

With these strong projections, several companies in the video ad world have seen more substantial investments in the last few months, including Unruly, a five-year-old social video advertising platform. Last month, Unruly, announced a $25 million Series A investment from Amadeus Capital Partners, Van den Ende & Deitmers and Business Growth Fund. 

In November, online video ad network BrightRoll announced a $30 million Series C round funding, with Trident Capital as lead investor and Scale Venture Partners, Adam Street Partners, and Comerica Bank also participating. Senior Managing Director at Trident Capital Evangelos Simoudis will join the BrightRoll board.

And back in August, video ad engagement company Innovid on announced a $9.5 million round of funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from existing investors Genesis Partners and T-Venture (Deutsche Telecom).  The round brings Innovid’s total raised to date to $17 million.

So while it is promising that Brainient has received this $1.8 million funding for its video advertising service, the size of the capital indicates that its growth may not be as substantial as some of the others in the field. 

(Image Source: Orbitscripts.com)