‘Attention economy’ advertising startup Amplified Intelligence banks $3 million post-seed round

Attention measurement advertising platform Amplified Intelligence has raised $3 million in a post-seed funding round.

The raise was led by Steve Baxter’s investment syndicate venture capital fund TEN13.

Amplified Intelligence will use to accelerate company’s product roadmap and expand global commercial team, including its first hires in the US and UK. It’s the startup’s first external capital, ahead of an expected series A round in 2022.

The Adelaide-based startup was founded by academic and author, Professor Karen Nelson-Field and Philip Townend, who is also chief growth officer.

Its goal is to change the way media is traded, replacing legacy metrics such as viewability and traditional opportunity-to-see (OTS) with tools that measure exactly how effectively ad placements across different media drive real active human attention. They claim to be the global leader in the measurement of human attention – the most valuable and important indicator of ad success.

Amplified Intelligence uses AI-powered attention-tracking technology and the most comprehensive database of attention to advertising across digital and TV to give advertisers with a more accurate picture of how much attention their campaigns are actually generating in order to maximise their media spend, drive better campaign outcomes and minimise wastage.

The company ‘s AI-powered media buying platform, attentionTRACE launched in late 2020. Its attention-based planning, buying and verification products are being used by leading brands, agencies and platforms in the world, including OMD, WPP, Shell, Mars, Pepsi, Twitter, Facebook and Spotify.

Prof Nelson-Field, Amplified’s CEO, said it was an incredibly exciting time for the business.

“Following significant interest from across the investor community, I’m delighted to have the support of TEN13, who know our industry well and totally share our vision for change via rigorous means. This is super important to me,” she said.

“Having this investment will help us scale our pioneering tech, invest in R&D and expand our talented teams. It means that Amplified can continue to lead the way in making attention the gold standard for ad success and change the advertising landscape for the better.”

TEN13 managing partner Stew Glynn said that with the media sector is at a serious inflection point, Amplified has the lead position globally in attention-tracking software across multiple media formats.

“We believe the timing is right for their opportunity given the demise of the cookie and the emerging realisation across the industry that advertising should be measured on the value captured (attention) rather than impressions,” he said

“Amplified has a transformative vision for the shift towards an attention-based global advertising standard — Karen has literally written the book on the ‘Attention Economy’ topic.

“CPM and impressions will no longer be the only metric and currency for advertising buying and thus ad spend will rightly shift to a new metric based on attention-adjusted seconds where advertising has been consumed – a more transparent currency of advertising value. We are excited to be a part of their growth.”