Digital Business of the Year 2013

Founder and CEO: Glen Calvert
Year Started: 2011 
Website: www.affectv.com

Affectv is an example of a UK business succeeding in an industry strongly dominated by large, heavily funded, American internet ad companies. Promising to deliver the ‘next generation’ of audience-targeting technology, Calvert’s marketing platform aims to help improve the internet and make advertising more relevant by giving publishers and advertisers access to unrivalled insights and ad targeting capabilities across all social media sites and platforms. It offers an end-to-end solution, enabling brands to communicate with consumers by finding out which brand is most relevant for a particular person, and what message to show in the ad.

In just two years the London-based digital marketing company has attracted over 60 clients and revenue has grown at 150% each year. The business managed to scale on organic revenue alone to over 35 people before securing a £2m funding round in July. Expansion to Europe is now in sight with plans to launch overseas in 2014.

Judges’ comments:

A finalist last year, the judges were staggered by Affectv’s growth rate, list of stellar clients such as American Express and Hilton, and the fact that until earlier this year everything had been achieved without outside finance.