Suggestv raises $1m in seed funding

Suggestv, the intelligent video discovery platform for publishers, has raised $1m in seed funding.

The investment round, led by Mark Pearson at Fuel Ventures, is being used to bolster the London start-up’s UK business development plans, grow its publisher base, and propel the business further into global markets.

Targeted towards publishers who struggle to monetise their video content, or achieve high views outside of the main social media platforms, Suggestv’s video recommendation tech helps match and insert videos into written content – automatically optimising playlists.

Based on contextual relevance rather than consumer data, Suggestv pulls content from publisher’s own sites, as well as via premium partners, in a process it claims helps users’ on-site videos attract over 50% more views.

Co-founded in 2015 by 27 year old CEO James Pringle, Suggestv currently serves around 50 million videos a month and works with the likes of The Telegraph, Bloomberg, UNILAD and Global Radio.

As as well of the fresh injection of cash, the company has also announced the appointment of David Ayre, previously of native video advertising company Teads, as head of business development.

Launched in April 2015 by Young Gun Mark Pearson, Fuel Ventures focuses on super-early seed, seed and Series A investments and specialises in the e-commerce sector.

Mark Pearson at Fuel Ventures said:

“Fuel Ventures are proud to be investors in Suggestv based on their innovation in video technology and strong traction with top-tier publishers. We are excited to start working with James and the team to support their ambitious plans.”

James Pringle, co-founder and CEO of Suggestv, said:

“We’re currently seeing a profound shift towards publishers telling stories via video, but at the moment still only 20% of articles have video within them. On top of this, the pre-roll inventory that helps publishers monetise their content will sell out quickly.

As more consumers shun the likes of banner ads and pop ups, publishers need to pivot to video to survive.

“With video advertising growing exponentially (46% year-on-year), the financial reward for publishers is there for the taking, but it’s often difficult for editorial teams to produce new video editorial to monetise.

“Suggestv takes this difficulty away and helps publishers scale the amount of monetisable pre-roll inventory they have.

“Our tech solution automatically adds quality, relevant and brand-safe video content to every article, allowing publishers to pivot to video as they move to become video-first.

“This investment round gives us financial firepower to scale the number of videos we serve, and expand as a business and we’re looking forward to 2018.”