Nano Interactive, the ad tech business founded by two former ValueClick executives, has received a £3.5 million growth capital investment from leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager Foresight.
Founded in 2014 by two former executives of ValueClick (now Conversant), Christian Geyer and Carl White, Nano Interactive came to market to capitalise on the emerging growth of the search and intent-based targeting sector, where online advertisements are served to users based on recent search history.
With the search targeting display market now estimated to be worth over half a billion dollars, Nano has since developed a network comprising 500 million unique profiles and captures more than five billion searches per month working with over 500 clients including T-Mobile, Volkswagen and MediaMarkt across multiple European offices.
‘An important stage’
Off the back of the investment by Foresight, Nano looks to speed up its plans to expand internationally, while making further investments in sales, marketing and product development.
Geyer, the group’s co-founder and CEO, called the Series A investment “an important stage in our development” and equipped the business for further growth.
For Foresight, the investment in the ad tech business represents the first of 2018 for the private equity team. Following 12 investments completed in 2017, Nano’s funding represents the investor’s first foray back into the tech sector since achieving a 3x return on the exit of Simulity to ARM.
Commenting on the group’s decision, Foresight Group’s senior investment manager, Rodney Appiah, said; “In a relatively short period of time, Nano has delivered exceptional growth, built fantastic client relationships and developed market leading proprietary technology in the area of search and intent-based targeting.”