The company has grown over 70% CAGR over the past 4 years and aims to double down on expanding its proprietary data-driven managed and programmatic offerings to enable brands to engage with the under 18 segment, at scale.
(Pictured from left to right- George Kypraios - Chief Executive, Yefira Andrew Kahn - Managing Director and CEO, PartnersForGrowth Karthi Sepulohniam - Managing Director, PartnersForGrowth Will Anstee- CEO, TotallyAwesome)
TotallyAwesome, Australia’s most advanced digital advertising network for kids, teens, and families, today announced it has raised US$10M (debt and equity combined) seed funding from leading San Francisco based Partners For Growth and Singapore based boutique investment growth advisory firm Yefira Group specialising in adtech investment consulting. TotallyAwesome enables a youth-safe digital ecosystem by curating the largest supply of media inventory for brands to engage with more than 500 million monthly active under 18-users across APAC, safely.
Studies suggest that every-day 175,000 kids come online for the first time and by the age of 13, each one will have 72 million data points associated with them. At a time when there’s never been more scrutiny over online data privacy, internet usage by under-18s now accounts for 40% of daily traffic. This major structural shift has propelled the need for a proprietary and contextual data-graph that the advertising industry can rely on, and TotallyAwesome is uniquely positioned to reinvent the engagement relationship with younger audiences (under 18s) at scale, through its data-driven offerings- the Dynamic-Pricing-As-A-Service (DPaaS) and the Curation and Moderation Platform. Through this new funding round the company aims to rewrite the current brand value exchange in the APAC region - by investing in product development to evolve its enterprise advertising platform, ramp up hiring across its sales, data science and machine learning teams, as well as exploring strategic mergers and acquisitions to accelerate growth.
Having quadrupled its revenue and increased its headcount by 200% over the last three financial years, TotallyAwesome will use the funding to solidify its position in a space where it has first-mover advantage, while expanding its footprint across key strategic markets such as Indonesia, Philippines, Japan and Australia.
Will Anstee, CEO of TotallyAwesome commented, “It gives me great confidence that 'Venture Capital for good' is gaining greater traction in our world at large and TotallyAwesome met that brief for both institutions. Additionally, the importance of cultural fit was at the top of my list when looking for both equity and debt partners. To this end, both PFG and the Yefira Group are a perfect match. Exciting times ahead.”
Karthi Sepulohniamm, Managing Director of Partners For Growth added, “We are excited to have the opportunity to support TotallyAwesome’s growth today and over the coming years, as they deliver solutions to global brands to provide a safe environment for kids to interact with technology. We're excited to help TotallyAwesome scale their platform which curates safe digital worlds for young explorers. We look forward to welcoming TotallyAwesome into our portfolio." Karthi Sepulohniam - Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific & Australia"
George Kypraios, CEO, Yefira Group commented, " We are very proud to partner TotallyAwesome at this critical juncture by arranging the venture debt facility with Partners for Growth, as well as investing our own capital as an equity investment. TotallyAwesome is exactly the type of client we want to be associated with, one that is pushing innovation in the right direction within the adtech /martech industry but most importantly with purpose at its heart. This is just the beginning. Watch this space.”
The investment marks the company’s second major announcement in recent weeks, having previously unveiled TotallyPlay, the industry’s largest brand safe gaming platform for brands to engage with Asia-Pacific’s 450mn+ under-18 gamers.
TotallyAwesome is compliant with both COPPA and GDPR data privacy guidelines and regulations, with the company being a member of the kidSAFE Seal Program. The company follows the most advanced Government regulations protecting kids’ data and privacy, with its resident practising psychologist advising on what is age-appropriate and consequently helping shape its products and develop bespoke research solutions. This science-backed approach is combined with local language human moderators – including teenagers – to ensure brand safety and emphasise human interpretation over AI-based solutions.
For more information on TotallyAwesome visit here.
----------END----------
About TotallyAwesome and TotallyPlay
TotallyAwesome is Asia-Pacific’s No.1 platform curating the largest supply of media inventory engaging Under-18s safely. We enable a youth-safe digital ecosystem with more than 500 million monthly active users across APAC. We adhere to and support international governments’ most advanced regulations protecting kids’ and teens’ data privacy. We do this through the deployment of bespoke technology designed specifically to offer youths contextual and customised content through age-appropriate engagement. We constantly strive to maximise a brand’s utility through relevant and engaging executions, this year launching our award-winning contextual Programmatic Playground solution and TotallyPlay platform which takes the confusion out of marketing to under-18s in the gaming ecosystem through unbiased, science-backed, human-first, and audience-safe and locally nuanced strategies.
Whether it’s a hand selected in-game marketing deployment, rewarded video in a mobile game, pre-rolls around popular gaming YouTubers, a custom integration within a virtual world, or an in-stream placement during a gaming tournament, TotallyPlay enables marketers to meaningfully connect with an industry where in APAC alone, video game revenues are 96.3bn$, 47% of the global market. TotallyPlay rewrites the playbook around the brand value exchange in the gaming industry, and provides greater utility for brands audiences through managed and programmatic offerings.