Australian digital advertising network TotallyAwesome, which focuses on kids, teens, and families, today announced it has raised US$10M ($A14.24M, debt and equity combined) seed funding from San Francisco based Partners For Growth and Singapore based boutique investment growth advisory firm Yefira Group specialising in adtech investment consulting.
TotallyAwesome enables a youth-safe digital ecosystem by curating a supply of media inventory for brands to engage with more than 500 million monthly active under 18-users across APAC, safely.
Studies suggest that every-day 175,000 kids come online for the first time and by the age of 13, each one will have 72 million data points associated with them. At a time when there’s never been more scrutiny over online data privacy, internet usage by under-18s now accounts for 40 per cent of daily traffic. This major structural shift has propelled the need for a proprietary and contextual data-graph that the advertising industry can rely on, and TotallyAwesome is uniquely positioned to reinvent the engagement relationship with younger audiences (under 18s) at scale, through its data-driven offerings – the Dynamic-Pricing-As-A-Service (DPaaS) and the Curation and Moderation Platform.
Through this new funding round the company aims to rewrite the current brand value exchange in the APAC region by investing in product development to evolve its enterprise advertising platform, ramp up hiring across its sales, data science and machine learning teams, as well as exploring strategic mergers and acquisitions to accelerate growth.
Having greatly increased its revenue and bolstered its headcount by 200 per cent over the last three financial years, TotallyAwesome will use the funding to solidify its position in a space where it has first-mover advantage, while expanding its footprint across key strategic markets such as Indonesia, Philippines, Japan and Australia.
Will Anstee (pictured right), CEO of TotallyAwesome said: “It gives me great confidence that ‘Venture Capital for good’ is gaining greater traction in our world at large and TotallyAwesome met that brief for both institutions. Additionally, the importance of cultural fit was at the top of my list when looking for both equity and debt partners. To this end, both PFG and the Yefira Group are a perfect match. Exciting times ahead.”
Karthi Sepulohniamm (pictured centre right), managing director of Partners For Growth said: “We are excited to have the opportunity to support TotallyAwesome’s growth today and over the coming years, as they deliver solutions to global brands to provide a safe environment for kids to interact with technology. We’re excited to help TotallyAwesome scale their platform which curates safe digital worlds for young explorers. We look forward to welcoming TotallyAwesome into our portfolio.”
George Kypraios (pictured left), CEO, Yefira Group added: “We are very proud to partner TotallyAwesome at this critical juncture by arranging the venture debt facility with Partners for Growth, as well as investing our own capital as an equity investment. TotallyAwesome is exactly the type of client we want to be associated with, one that is pushing innovation in the right direction within the adtech /martech industry but most importantly with purpose at its heart. This is just the beginning. Watch this space.”
The investment marks the company’s second major announcement in recent weeks, having previously unveiled TotallyPlay, the industry’s largest brand safe gaming platform for brands to engage with Asia-Pacific’s 450mn+ under-18 gamers.
TotallyAwesome is compliant with both COPPA and GDPR data privacy guidelines and regulations, with the company being a member of the kidSAFE Seal Program. The company follows the most advanced Government regulations protecting kids’ data and privacy, with its resident practising psychologist advising on what is age-appropriate and consequently helping shape its products and develop bespoke research solutions. This science-backed approach is combined with local language human moderators – including teenagers – to ensure brand safety and emphasise human interpretation over AI-based solutions.
