Online video ad researcher seeks £35m investment

Telemetry serves ads around online video content, as well as counting audiences and advising advertisers on how to get the best out of what they spend.

The business, which has 58 employees at offices in London and New York, wants £35m for a 20.4% stake, which would value it at £175m.

It is understood to be in talks with Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse and is considering a “beauty parade” to seek potential buyers in the US.

Telemetry was set up in 2008 by Russell Irwin, Beau Chesluk and Anthony Rushton, building on past work the team had done in online video production. Irwin and Chesluk also previously worked for videogame designer Rare.

By controlling the delivery and measurement of ads itself, Telemetry hopes to offer advertisers clarity and reliability in the notoriously inexact world of online ad measurement. Rushton told Research: “Our view is that if you can’t deliver [a piece of video], you can’t be sure of the data you’re extracting.”

Rushton said that media owners often count a video ad as having been played when the page or the video player in which it appears is loaded, rather than when the ad actually starts. As a result their counts often include instances where the viewer did not actually see the ad – so the advertiser ends up overpaying.

Telemetry’s results, Rushton says, have differed by between 5% and 80% from the counts that media owners use when they invoice advertisers, and the firm has found itself in the middle of some “shouting matches”. To defuse such arguments, it offers to share raw results with sellers as well as buyers of ad space.

The firm is already working with consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser and drinks company AB InBev. Rushton said the company is also in talks with five of the top fifteen global advertisers.

Telemetry wants investment to build up its infrastructure, open more offices and take on more employees, with a view to strengthening its ability to offer “policy advice at a high business level”. It believes it can grow its value to nearly £800m in three to four years.