EDMONTON, AB, October 10, 2017 – Accelerate Fund II is pleased to announce its investment in Visio Media Inc, a technology company founded in Edmonton that equips advertisers to gage consumer interest and test the strength of different ads in real-time with different audiences. Visio Media’s advertising network currently broadcasts to 200 elevators in downtown high-rises across Edmonton and Vancouver and the company will apply funding to expand nationally into other Canadian urban centres.
Inside elevators, Visio Media dynamically serves up ads via monitors embedded with advanced audience engagement software called Elev8. Elev8’s real-time platform delivers an advertiser’s ads based on audience, weather, time of day and sporting events. Elev8 can anonymously recognize if a group of seniors has entered the elevator and engage them with an ad about speaking with a retirement expert from Visio Media’s client Servus Credit Union. If the next group entering the elevator is young men, another client, the Edmonton Oilers, might display the boy’s night out ad. Other Visio Media advertising clients including The Brick, Kal Tire and Skip the Dishes also have their ads dynamically display, factoring in real-time context such as weather and recent news. Advertisers also gain comprehensive analytics including metrics on how each ad worked to engage different audiences and for how long, broken down by gender, age, location and more.
“In the online advertising world advertisers have an appetite to tailor their ads for a specific audience and to learn everything about viewer’s behaviour,” said Nate Glubish, Investment Manager for Accelerate Fund II, Yaletown Partners. “Visio Media makes this possible beyond web browsers and mobile apps. Visio’s Elev8 technology serves up relevant ads to an ever-changing audience, and delivers deep analytics, allowing advertisers to optimize content and validate engagement.”
“We look forward to rapidly expanding Elev8’s reach into the Toronto market and other important urban hubs across Canada,” added Fouad El-Masri, CEO of Visio Media. “We’re also excited to be working with fund managers Yaletown Partners and the A100. Yaletown has long had a reputation of being investors who deeply understand the pace and pressures of growing a technology business, and of working respectfully with CEO’s and the teams they fund. That has absolutely been our experience so far.”
About Visio Media
Visio Media is a digital out-of-home advertising network that uses anonymous proprietary software, Elev8, in the elevators of high-rise commercial and residential properties. With Elev8, Visio Media helps advertisers reach a targeted audience on their way in and out of their homes and offices. Visio Media is bridging the gap between the online advertising world where everything is measurable, and the traditional out of home world, where measurement is done by proxy if at all. www.visiomedia.ca
About The Accelerate Fund II
Accelerate Fund II is an early-stage angel co-investment fund in Alberta. We co-invest alongside angel investors in financing rounds and will typically invest up to $500,000 on the same terms and conditions as private investors. We work with formal angel groups, super-angels, family funds, and individual angel investors. Accelerate Fund II invests in private, early-stage Alberta companies in knowledge-based industries including: information and communications technology, clean and energy technology, as well as life sciences, including agriculture and biotech. Accelerate Fund II is managed by Yaletown Partners with the support of The A100.
Alberta Enterprise Corporation is the Accelerate Fund’s Limited Partner. www.acceleratefund.ca
Media Inquiries:
Accelerate Fund II/Yaletown Partners
Claudia Moore
Material Insight 403.703.0029
Claudia @ matertialinsight.com
Visio Media Inc.
Fouad El-Masri
CEO, Visio Media
fouad.masri @ visiomedia.ca
