ADBRO, the Malaysia-based adtech startup that specialises in in-image programmatic marketing for publishers and advertisers, announces that it has secured financing from 500 Startups.

“Our next goal is to expand throughout the entire APAC. With a total of nearly US$100 billion in digital spend, 70 to 80 per cent will be spent on programmatic,” said Artem Titov, ADBRO Co-founder, and CEO. “The move from direct deals between advertisers and publishers to programmatic guarantees advertisers that their ads are only linked to premium content while allowing publishers to generate more revenue.”

According to Binh Tran, General Partner, 500 Startups Vietnam, adtech remains an area of interest in Southeast Asia due to the relatively nascent digital marketing ecosystem. “By leveraging computer vision and AI, ADBRO has helped marketers create premium ads that lead the market in engagement. By working closely with marketers to classify and understand images differently in each market, they have developed a deep understanding of consumer engagement that won’t be easily replicated”, said Binh.

Claiming to be the first to apply computer vision to serve ads in the region, ADBRO provides advertisers with ways to reach and engage their audiences. Using eye-tracking research, the computer vision feature enhances ad delivery by doubling the viewability, CTR, and video engagement rates as compared to traditional display options.

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Founded in 2017 during YC School program, ADBRO serves the marketing tech sector by providing computer vision enhanced ads that are placed over contextually relevant images across publishers in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. ADBRO’s proprietary technologies in computer vision and machine learning is used to scan articles, images, and other content types, bringing programmatically accessible in-image formats for advertisers.

The company is headquartered in Singapore, with three operational offices across Southeast Asia and development hubs in the Netherlands and Russia. Its investors include Future Matters and PilotX venture capital funds.

Photo by Tran Mau Tri Tam on Unsplash

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