BAce Capital leads $3 mn round in ad-tech platform AdOnMo

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising startup AdOnMo has raised $3 million in a seed round led by venture capital firm BAce Capital, an affiliate of Hangzhou headquartered Alibaba Group and Ant Financial. 

Venture capital firm Astarc Ventures and angel investor group Mumbai Angels Network participated in the round, said a statement.

In the past, AdOnMo raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round from a group of angel investors, a company spokesperson told TechCircle.

The Hyderabad, Telangana-based company plans to use the fresh capital to strengthen its team and expand operations to more cities. It is currently operational in Mumbai, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Bengaluru and employs a team of 40 engineers.

Founded in 2017 by Sandeep Bommireddi and Sravanth Gajula, the startup provides outdoor advertising media services through digital taxi-top advertising. So far, AdOnMo claims to have participated in over 250 advertisement campaigns and filed seven patents. 

While Gajula is an Indian School of Business graduate, Bommireddi has studied in Indian Institute of Technology, Indore. Both previously worked at technology major Microsoft between 2014 to 2017.

“Its long-term view and portfolio of investments in early-stage startups will provide many synergistic opportunities as we expand our operations to other geographies within the rapidly growing media-tech industry,” Bommireddi said.

AdOnMo counts brands such as Amazon, Honda, Exide, HDFC Bank, IKEA, and Reliance Digital among its customers. The startup also provides affordable solutions to small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).

“Drawing parallels from the China story, we see a lot of potential in this space. AdOnMo is taking a unique approach to unify online and outdoor advertising using cutting-edge technology,” Benny Chen, managing partner of BAce Capital said.

Chen previously told TechCircle that BAce Capital plans to invest 60% of its maiden fund in Indian consumer internet business. It had already raised $100 million of the targeted $150 million in 2019 and is expecting to close the fund early this year after raising the balance amount. 

Since the first close of the fund in April 2019, BAce Capital has invested in health-tech platform Healofy, social media platform Qyuki and bike taxi startup Rapido.

Early this month, BAce Capital parent entity Alibaba Group, which is an investor in Paytm parent One97 Communications, invested $150 million in food delivery platform Zomato, taking the startup’s valuation to $3 billion. 

OurInitiative Media-owned OOH platform Oi Media also operates in the same space as that of AdOnMo. In 2017, Oi Media raised an undisclosed amount from venture capital fund Quarizon.

The outdoor advertising segment is poised to overtake newspaper ad sales in 2020, The Financial Times had earlier reported. Another key trend emerging in this space is the rise of personalised advertisements, where artificial intelligence powered solutions will help companies create customised ad campaigns for targeted audience. Globally, the digital OOH advertising market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate  of 11% during 2019-2024, according to a report from IMARC Group.