YFM Fairness Companions (YFM) has led a $8.2m funding spherical into GEEIQ – a UK-based metaverse information intelligence specialist with a roster of massive title, worldwide shoppers.
The funding will allow GEEIQ (‘geek’), which is headquartered in London, to speed up its scale-up plans, discover potential worldwide growth and additional develop its information platform product.
Launched in 2018, GEEIQ has grown quickly by addressing a mounting want for information intelligence within the evolving metaverse market, which it defines as digital gaming and social environments, similar to Roblox, Decentraland and Fortnite. Its platform leverages information from this house, which GEEIQ sees as a pure evolution of social media, to assist manufacturers navigate it successfully.
The worldwide gaming market is valued at $178bn at present and is forecast to succeed in over $250bn by the tip of 2025. The platform permits manufacturers to maximise their funding on this new advertising and marketing vertical, by data-led choice making and to measure and attribute the real-world worth of engagement with their digital activations.
Because of this know-how, GEEIQ has positioned itself because the decision-making level for manufacturers in search of to establish and optimise their digital methods, serving to them to succeed in, interact and retain new, digital audiences. It helps its shoppers by a subscription-based mannequin with managed providers embedded into contracts.
Excessive-profile, worldwide manufacturers which have engaged GEEIQ to-date embrace Walmart, Porsche, L’Oreal and Gucci. The platform additionally helped to make sure the profitable execution of Sir Elton John and Common Music’s ‘Elton John Presents: Past the Yellow Brick Street’ digital Roblox live performance and expertise – which grew to become the highest-rated live performance in Roblox historical past.
Commenting on the newest spherical of funding into the platform, GEEIQ CEO, Charles Hambro mentioned: “International manufacturers have been counting on GEEIQ and this newest funding will turbo-charge our potential to help them additional, in addition to enabling us to faucet into new enterprise alternatives. We wish to make sure that our firm is as effectively positioned as potential to assist visionary manufacturers acquire a data-driven and worthwhile presence within the digital house.”
“YFM have offered us with excellent help from the outset of our relationship with them. Going far past what a typical investor would supply, they’ve taken the time to actually perceive the drivers of our enterprise, which could be difficult in such a brand new sphere.
“Their complete due diligence strategy has been vastly advantageous, as has their assist with constructing out our development technique. The YFM group additionally aided us in appointing a brand new, extremely skilled Chair, Michel Cassius, beforehand of Apple, Digital Arts and Microsoft Xbox, who’s taking part in a key position in our improvement.”
Helen Villiers at YFM added, “GEEIQ is testomony to the truth that manufacturers are starting to take digital environments and the metaverse much more significantly.”
“We’re at an inflection level the place conventional promoting and social media presence will now not lower it for manufacturers getting into this house. They want instruments like GEEIQ for KPI measurement and attribution. Whereas many tech companies working on this house obtained intensive funding in the course of the early metaverse ‘hype’ interval, GEEIQ continues to function and thrive and represents a extra mature metaverse funding alternative. The enterprise helps to outline the way forward for these digital environments as a advertising and marketing vertical and has large development potential.”.
Photograph: Left to right- James Burden (COO) Michel Cassius (Chairman) Andrew Burden (CTO) Zach Francies (YFM), Helen Villiers (YFM) and Charles Hambro.
Advisers on the deal included: RPL, Buyer Referencing; HCR, Authorized; Leckie Kershaw, Tech DD; Human Issue Well being Examine, Organisational DD; HMT, Monetary DD; Gross sales Blueprint, GTM DD and Philip Hare & Associates, VCT recommendation.
About GEEIQ
GEEIQ is a London-based information platform and insights supplier based in 2018 that allows a few of the world’s greatest manufacturers, together with Gucci, H&M, L’Oreal, and even Sir Elton John, to navigate the metaverse and the broader digital panorama.
We empower manufacturers of each form and measurement to create long-term, data-led digital methods that enrich the expertise of untapped digital communities, develop addressable audiences, and create sustainable income streams on this new advertising and marketing and communications vertical.
Our platform leverages information from throughout the huge panorama of digital gaming and social environments to allow benchmarking towards branded digital activations, competitor evaluation, companion and influencer identification, in addition to a deeper understanding of viewers affinities and demographics. For our Premium and Enterprise subscribers, our in-house consultants present bespoke reporting and long-term digital technique curation that’s targeted on tangible measurement and attribution, moderately than constructive PR and metaverse ‘hype’.
For extra info. please go to www.geeiq.com or comply with us on LinkedIn.
About YFM
YFM invests £2m to £10m into companies with robust development potential positioned throughout the UK by a regional community of workplaces in London, Leeds, Manchester, Studying and Birmingham.
YFM Fairness Companions are specialist, independently owned, personal fairness traders. Having just lately celebrated 40 years of investing expertise, our portfolio might have modified through the years, however our ethos has remained the identical – to help small companies throughout the UK of their subsequent section of development. We search to unlock worth and development potential by offering as much as £10 million of fairness to gas the event of established enterprise all through the UK areas. We do that by serving to our portfolio corporations launch new initiatives, make transformative acquisitions, and improve applied sciences and programs. We’re devoted to working alongside administration groups to create long-term worth for our traders, the businesses we spend money on, and make a constructive financial influence for the communities during which we work. We handle funds in extra of £420 million which embrace enterprise capital trusts and personal fairness funds.
YFM Fairness Companions conducts its funding enterprise by its subsidiary YFM Personal Fairness Restricted which is authorised and controlled by the Monetary Conduct Authority (FRN: 122120).
For extra info, please go to www.yfmep.com or comply with us on LinkedIn.