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With $6.1 million of investment, ad-tech platform Good-Loop, which supports marketers’ sustainability drives, intends to expand internationally with new offices opening in New York and Chicago.
The business, which has B-corporation status, already runs campaigns across 18 markets internationally. Led by co-founders Amy Williams, its chief executive, and Daniel Winterstein, who is chief technology officer, Good-Loop has raised $8.2 million in funding since 2016.
The company aims to connect brands and consumers by delivering advertising that creates a social impact. It currently has offices in London and Edinburgh and claims to have raised $5 million for charities, such as Save the Children, WaterAid and Great Ormond Street Hospital, while working for clients such as Levi’s, Bose, H&M and Unilever.
The latest funding round, led by New York-based investment fund Quaestus Capital Management (QCM), also included additional backing from Scottish Enterprise, SIS Ventures and FirstPartyCapital. Crowdfunding platform Seedrs was also used to raise further investment.
As a result, the business now intends to accelerate its product development, creating solutions that will aim to reduce digital advertising’s carbon footprint.
The expansion into the U.S. comes with the country already accounting for a third of Good-Loop’s total revenue, it revealed.
Amy Williams, who is also a regular columnist for Adweek, said in a statement: “At the heart of our industry is an inherent value exchange between advertiser and consumer—and I’m on a mission to harness that value as a significant force for good. Through our respectful, positive ad platform, brands can treat people online as partners—rather than targets—united by a desire to have a meaningful social impact.”
On the expansion plans, Williams told Adweek that the business would take a “two-pronged approach” with the investment in a business development team, led by Nick Rainey, who will “work to foster deeper and more meaningful relationships” with existing U.S. brand partners. Williams also intends to move to New York in the coming months, to start building the team in the country and to accelerate market penetration.
The company offers ad-tech solutions including its Carbon Calculator and the Green Ad Tag—a tracking pixel to allow advertisers to monitor the carbon cost of their digital advertising in real-time.
Austin Davis, CEO at QCM, said that Good-Loop was a business that “elevates advertising and conscious-minded business to an entirely new level and will become the industry Fairtrade stamp.”
Davis added: “The business model solves many long-standing issues in the sector and is the paradigm shift that has been needed to regain consumer trust in transparent and ethical advertising that not only provides superior results to advertisers, but does it while making great contributions to the world through philanthropic giving. It is a win-win for all parties. Ultimately, Good-Loop proves doing good is truly good for business—it is not a trade-off.”
