South Central Ventures (SCV) has just announced their new investment, this time in the ad-tech* startup Hunch, the SVC reported. Founded in 2016, Hunch is an advertising automation service that uses an innovative technology to help the business acquire and grow their customers online and become more successful in their online advertising on the most important digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Adwords, Twitter and LinkedIn.
“Hunch provides real and measurable value to clients and adds unique intelligence to their digital ad spend process. Its founders bring to the table an invaluable mix of domain knowledge, technology and business experience and we are thrilled to support them on their entrepreneurial path,” said Jan Kobler, Managing Partner South Central Ventures.
The SCV investment in this ad-tech comes at a time when global internet ad spends is expected to surpass TV ad spend for the first time in history this year. According to the SCV estimations, in the online era, advertisers are competing for a 1.7 seconds opportunity to engage with their customers on mobile devices. That said, the reasons for SCV decision to invest in this startup are more than clear.
For Hunch on the other hand, this investment is a proof that the company is on right track. Hence the funding will be used to further develop their automation platform and the fuel the growth of the company.
“Partnering with SC Ventures is an important step for us, and South Central Ventures has been very supportive,” said Sinisa Rakovic, CEO, Hunch. “At this stage, working side by side with our customers allows us to incorporate the feedback right into our product. With our team, technology, and approach we are on a mission to help businesses take advantage of automated, optimized, and personalized customer acquisition processes.”
Since launching an early access program in 2017, Hunch experienced continual growth, helping their clients to stay on top of the constantly changing advertising environment. With their faster campaign optimization and scale of advertising efforts, they have grown their client base in no time, serving now more than 200 companies, among which top brands like Weebly, Greenpeace, and Dice.FM.
This startup was founded in California, but its based in Serbia. Its founders, Aleksandar Djenic, Dane Rukavina, Igor Simovic, Nikola Milenkovic, Aleksandar Maletic and Sinisa Rakovic, are from a diverse background in technology development who are genuinely passionate about machine learning, data science, and advertising workflow automation.
SC Ventures on the other hand, is a fund focused on tech companies in the Balkans. The 40 million EUR fund is dedicated primarily to early stage and growth investments. Within the fund’s ‘seed pocket’, 1.5 million EUR is allocated for investments of up to 100.000 EUR per company.
* The term “ad tech,” which is short for advertising technology, broadly refers to different types of analytics and digital tools used in the context of advertising. Discussions about ad tech often revolve around the extensive and complex systems used to direct advertising to individuals and specific target audiences.