Today, Anzu announces that the advanced in-game advertising platform has closed its current funding round with $20M, increasing its total capital raised to $37M since 2017.
Anzu received funding from two of the world’s leading brands. The first, NBCUniversal, is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. The second, HTC, is a consumer electronics company known for producing some of the world’s most popular VR products and software and has recently revealed the ‘Viverse’, its place in the metaverse.
Anzu’s Co-Founder and CEO Itamar Benedy gave the following words in his speech;
“Everyone is talking about the impending metaverse, and we are starting to see it emerge from several different angles. However, if you want to see it in action right now, you just need to look to today’s most popular gaming platforms, which are hosting virtual concerts and film screenings. This funding will further expand our in-game advertising solution, helping even more advertisers understand where their brand fits in, and how they navigate these immersive, digitally-connected spaces.”
Earlier this month, the company announced a game-changing partnership with NBCUniversal which will allow the brand’s marketing partners to run non-intrusive, in-game ads across Anzu’s cross-platform gaming inventory, which spans mobile, PC, and consoles, using interactive, contextual, and programmatic in-game advertising solutions with privacy and brand safety at its core.
Krishan Bhatia, NBCUniversal CEO and Chief Business Officer, commented:
“Combining Anzu’s technological prowess in the gaming and esports space with NBCUniversal’s client reach and advanced advertising solutions, together we can reinvent the future of in-game advertising with brand safety and creativity at the forefront. Anzu understands the importance of integrated advertising and by working directly with video game publishers, NBCUniversal can help marketers create engaging content that enhances the gamers’ world.”
Anzu will remain an independent company
The funding will be used to take Anzu’s efforts in in-game advertising to the next level.
Joseph Lin, Vice President of Content and Platform at HTC, said;
“With the arrival of the metaverse, the way that people communicate, interact, and spend is going to evolve. We are excited to assist in bringing this new dimension to digital marketing services, providing safe and private user experiences while enabling brands and developers to bring more creativities and new monetization models in the metaverse.”
Other investors include WPP (for the third time), Sony Innovation Fund, BITKRAFT Ventures, HBSE Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, the iconic baseball team The Chicago Cubs, Goal Ventures, and a prominent angel investor Marc Merrill, the Co-Founder, Co-Chairman, and President of Games at Riot Games. As with the previous round, all investors will act as strategic partners, while Anzu will remain an independent company.
Benedy recently added the following comments;
“I am proud to have iconic investors who share in Anzu’s vision and enable us to bring in-game advertising and our best-class tech to more gaming platforms and global brands. Our last investment round helped us achieve some monumental milestones, including bringing in-game advertising to Roblox, becoming the first advertising platform to be verified by Unity, extending our partnership with Ubisoft, and launching new partnerships with leading games studios, including Saber Interactive for its AAA game Dakar Desert Rally.
Uninterrupted partnerships
As we know, the company became the first in-game advertising company to join Unity’s Verified Solutions Partner Program on March 9, 2022. This agreement meant that the Anzu SDK was tested and verified to be optimized for the final version of Unity.
Anzu, who also announced that dynamic in-game ads were made available to improve the Roblox experience in the past months, aimed to significantly increase the revenues of Roblox, which attracts more than 43 million players daily with this solution.
“We also brought first-to-market in-game viewability with Oracle Moat and partnered with Human and Comscore to help improve IVT across gaming platforms. Anzu’s recent direct integration with The Trade Desk has also helped expand our solution to more advertisers.”
Anzu’s Co-Founder and CEO Itamar Benedy
The company has also been recognized within the advertising industry as a force to be reckoned with, picking up multiple awards, including Best Tech Platform at The Drum Awards and Best Gaming User Monetization Technology at The Wires.
