YFM Fairness Companions (YFM) has led a $8.2m funding spherical into GEEIQ – a UK-based metaverse knowledge 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 enlargement and additional develop its knowledge platform product.
Launched in 2018, GEEIQ has grown quickly by addressing a mounting want for knowledge intelligence within the evolving metaverse market, which it defines as digital gaming and social environments, akin to Roblox, Decentraland and Fortnite. Its platform leverages knowledge 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 this time and is forecast to achieve over $250bn by the tip of 2025. The platform permits manufacturers to maximise their funding on this new advertising and marketing vertical, by means of data-led resolution 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 looking for to determine and optimise their digital methods, serving to them to achieve, interact and retain new, digital audiences. It helps its shoppers by means of a subscription-based mannequin with managed companies embedded into contracts.
Excessive-profile, worldwide manufacturers which have engaged GEEIQ to-date embody 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 Highway’ 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: “World manufacturers have been counting on GEEIQ and this newest funding will turbo-charge our skill to help them additional, in addition to enabling us to faucet into new enterprise alternatives. We wish to be certain that our firm is as properly positioned as attainable to assist visionary manufacturers achieve 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 provide, they’ve taken the time to essentially perceive the drivers of our enterprise, which will be difficult in such a brand new sphere.
“Their complete due diligence method has been vastly advantageous, as has their assist with constructing out our progress technique. The YFM crew 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 function 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 critically.”
“We’re at an inflection level the place conventional promoting and social media presence will not minimize it for manufacturers coming into this house. They want instruments like GEEIQ for KPI measurement and attribution. Whereas many tech companies working on this house obtained intensive funding throughout 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 enormous progress 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 knowledge platform and insights supplier based in 2018 that allows a number 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 knowledge from throughout the huge panorama of digital gaming and social environments to allow benchmarking towards branded digital activations, competitor evaluation, accomplice and influencer identification, in addition to a deeper understanding of viewers affinities and demographics. For our Premium and Enterprise subscribers, our in-house specialists present bespoke reporting and long-term digital technique curation that’s centered on tangible measurement and attribution, slightly than constructive PR and metaverse ‘hype’.
For extra data. please go to www.geeiq.com or observe us on LinkedIn.
About YFM
YFM invests £2m to £10m into companies with robust progress potential positioned throughout the UK by means of a regional community of places of work in London, Leeds, Manchester, Studying and Birmingham.
YFM Fairness Companions are specialist, independently owned, personal fairness traders. Having 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 progress. We search to unlock worth and progress potential by offering as much as £10 million of fairness to gasoline the event of established enterprise all through the UK areas. We do that by serving to our portfolio firms launch new initiatives, make transformative acquisitions, and improve applied sciences and techniques. We’re devoted to working alongside administration groups to create long-term worth for our traders, the businesses we put money into, and make a constructive financial impression for the communities through which we work. We handle funds in extra of £420 million which embody enterprise capital trusts and personal fairness funds.
YFM Fairness Companions conducts its funding enterprise by means of its subsidiary YFM Non-public Fairness Restricted which is authorised and controlled by the Monetary Conduct Authority (FRN: 122120).
For extra data, please go to www.yfmep.com or observe us on LinkedIn.
