EDINBURGH-based digital marketing consultancy QueryClick has secured £2 million of investment from business angel syndicate Archangels and the taxpayer-funded Scottish Investment Bank to fuel expansion.
QueryClick, which has developed marketing software that enables companies to precisely allocate their investments in different marketing channels to ensure the maximum possible return, plans to recruit additional analysts and sales staff.
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The company, which was founded in 2008 and employs 54 staff who manage more than £1 billion of client spend in 28 countries worldwide, also plans to “mount a significant marketing effort” to accelerate its growth in a sector described by Archangels as “fast-developing”.
QueryClick’s machine learning-based Corvidae solution tracks the customer journey across all advertising platforms including television, newspapers, magazines, billboards and digital. The firm’s clients include Aggreko, BT, EE and Vitality.
Chris Liversidge, founder and chief executive officer of QueryClick, said: “When digital marketing took off, everything was supposed to be measurable and optimisable but, in fact, attribution has for years been digital marketing’s broken promise.”
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He added: “We recognised that the emergence of machine learning offered a new opportunity for our industry to get attribution right for advertisers, who deserve better, and this investment gives us renewed impetus to take our unique solution out to them.”
Niki McKenzie, investment director at Archangels, said: “Knowing which advertising works, and which doesn’t, has always been the holy grail for advertisers. QueryClick’s software is already proving its immense value to its early adopters, making us confident that, with the right support, QueryClick will prove to be another success story for Scotland in this fast-developing sector.”
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Scottish Enterprise, of which the Scottish Investment Bank is part, has been working with QueryClick for a decade, from start-up phase through to product innovation and organisational development.
Scottish Investment Bank director Kerry Sharp said: “It’s great to see the company expand and create more jobs.
“We look forward to working further with them on their continued growth journey.”
QueryClick has offices in Edinburgh and London.
Archangels, which was formed in 1992 and is based in Edinburgh, highlighted market research organisation eMarketer’s estimate that spending on internet advertising worldwide will total $316 billion in 2019.
The business angel group’s syndicate now comprises 130 investor members. Archangels leads investment of around £10m per annum in early-stage Scottish companies, including leverage from partners, the largest of which is the Scottish Investment Bank.
Archangels highlighted its interest in opportunities for investment in Scottish technology companies that are looking for initial funding of between £50,000 and £2m.
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