The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Jan 2024

NumberEight builds on-device AI identity solutions that enable "privacy-first" identity without using identifiers for the advertising industry. Its technology empowers publishers and ad platforms to enrich ads with intelligent, ID-less, anonymized data so advertisers can reach target audiences while preserving privacy. The company already operates globally with audio, gaming, and advertising customers, including Southern Cross Austereo (SCA), Adverty, and AdInMo. Led by CEO Abhishek Sen and based in London, NumberEight intends to use the $2.7M Pre-Series A to drive commercial growth, bolster product development, and expedite US expansion. The company pointed to increasing privacy regulations and platform data restrictions as drivers of inbound market interest. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. NumberEight builds a contextual intelligence platform for mobile devices that predicts consumer context and delivers real-time personalised experiences. Its edge AI and signal-processing technology produces more than 100 contextual insights (e.g., “travelling to work on a bicycle”) and exposes them via an online dashboard that anonymises and correlates events with in-app activity. The platform is designed to run on-device so sensor data never leaves the user’s phone, preserving user privacy. The company is currently focused on the €132 billion Media and Entertainment market, including music streaming, online radio, mobile gaming and advertising, and aims to power context-driven experiences across the mobile app ecosystem. NumberEight will use the €2 million seed financing to enhance its patent-pending technology, hire engineering and commercial talent, and accelerate business growth. Founded in 2016 by CEO Abhishek Sen and CTO Chris Watts—built on Sen’s TU Delft research and prior mobile experience—the team emphasises privacy-preserving algorithms and academic rigour.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2022

QLM Technology is a photonics and analytics company based at the EPIC Centre in Torbay that is transforming methane-emissions monitoring through its proprietary quantum gas lidar platform. The company’s lidar sensors give industrial operators the ability to detect, localize, and quantify methane leaks quickly and with high precision, addressing a pressing environmental and regulatory need. With protected intellectual property and a leadership team possessing deep industry expertise, QLM is positioned to serve energy, industrial, and environmental markets worldwide. The firm plans to channel new capital into continued product development across both software and hardware, expand industrial applications, and build out channel partnerships to broaden market reach. Management emphasizes that its technology contributes directly to methane-reduction goals central to global net-zero efforts. Recent funding activity indicates growing investor confidence in QLM’s commercial potential, although specific revenue or user metrics were not disclosed. The company views the current raise as a springboard for scaling deployments and strengthening its foothold in the fast-growing clean-tech sector.

Led · Equity · Feb 2010

TagMan provides a global Tag Management System (TMS), marketing data and marketing attribution platform that enables marketers to visualize the customer path to purchase and build analytics dashboards to measure advertising spend. The company operates STREAM, a global partnership program launched in October 2012 that offers streamlined tag implementations, real-time tag-enabled data collection and cross-channel marketing data via certified partners. Certified partners include marketing and analytics agencies as well as CRM, marketing and ecommerce platforms that add TagMan’s solution alongside professional services such as consulting, training, implementation and media buying. TagMan’s client roster includes Vodafone, Travelocity, Spotify, John Lewis, Virgin Atlantic, The Body Shop, Air New Zealand, Debenhams, DIRECTV, TiVo and Tesco Mobile. The company said it is hiring and intends to use new funding to grow STREAM and expand its customer base globally. TagMan, founded in 2007 and based in New York City and London, provides an enterprise-level tag management platform used to manage online third-party vendor tags and their data. The company describes itself as the global leader in tag management and supports tags from more than 200 marketing software and services organizations. E-commerce businesses use its system to implement marketing campaigns and track multi-touch attribution paths to conversion in real time. Customers include Travelocity, Kellogg’s, Autotrader and Virgin Atlantic. TagMan raised $5m in a Series B to invest in product, infrastructure and people. The company plans to open several new sales and support offices in Europe and North America and will launch initiatives to increase adoption of its Tag Management technology both directly and through partners. TagMan provides a web-based platform that lets marketers and advertisers manage online marketing tags (pixels) and the data those tags produce to track campaign performance. Users embed a small JavaScript snippet on pages to collect tag data, which advertisers or agencies can view and manage through TagMan’s interface. Customers include Subaru and Virgin Atlantic. The company will use the new funding to develop and release a new version of its technology, build out infrastructure, and provide customer support. TagMan raised $2.25 million in a Series A led by Greycroft Partners, with iNovia Capital and undisclosed angel investors participating. The round brings the startup’s total funding to nearly $5 million. TagMan is a New York and London-based tag management solution that enables agencies and advertisers to manage online marketing tags/pixels and the data they provide. Its system allows tags and pixels to be added, edited or removed directly from a web page in minutes, a process that can ordinarily take months. The product enables marketers to track the full customer journey, plan future activity more effectively, eliminate duplicate commission payments, and move between tag providers as needed. TagMan serves online advertisers and agencies in the US and Europe, with clients including Virgin Atlantic, Boden, Thomas Cook and Media Contacts. The company closed a $1.3M first round of external financing and previously raised $800,000 in angel funds from friends and employees. Management said the investment will be used to scale the business by growing client support and product development teams and expanding US operations.