Ethical video platform Good-Loop has announced it has closed a $1.6 million seed funding round from You & Mr Jones, the brand tech group founded by former Havas chief executive David Jones.

Coming just months after The Business Roundtable announcement, in which the heads of more than 180 US companies agreed to give social responsibility as much emphasis as financial performance, the latest investment in Good-Loop underlines growing business interest in the many ways that purpose and social good can help a business to thrive today.

Good-Loop is an ethical video platform working with clients such as Nestlé, Unilever, Coca-Cola, TOMS, H&M and Amazon, helping them to tap into programmatic technology to deliver brand purpose at scale. 

Good-Loop’s proprietary platform rewards viewers of online video ads by donating on their behalf to a chosen charity. It converts every view, swipe and click into funding for charities, with half of the media spend going to important causes whilst boosting video performance and increasing recall by up to 45%.

Good-Loop will invest the funds in growing its commercial team in Europe and the US. The company intends to raise a Series A round in Q1 2021 which will be used to fund the US expansion – the US accounts for 30% of the global ad market currently.

Other investors in the round include New York-based investment firm Quaestus Capital Management, SIS Ventures, MarTech angel group, Galvanise Capital, and the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise.

To date, Good-Loop has raised over half a million pounds for charities around the world and is on track to its target of £2 million by 2021.

“We’ve built the number one group of technology and technology-enabled companies in the marketing space to enable better, faster and cheaper marketing. Good-Loop fits seamlessly into this ecosystem and also with our strong belief that technology can and should be a force for good in the world,” said Emma Cookson, partner of You & Mr Jones.

“This round of funding will help Good-Loop to further our mission of connecting people, brands and good causes around the world. Bringing You and Mr Jones and our other investors into the business at this stage will add a huge amount of value above and beyond cash as we prepare to scale up our operations. With industry luminaries like David Jones supporting us, we’ll be well-positioned to deliver innovative marketing technology, industry-leading social insight and truly impactful brand purpose,” commented Amy Williams, co-founder and CEO of Good-Loop.