Pixels EIS Syndicate Raise; Subscribe To Our New World-Class Podcast
Hello and welcome to this edition of the FirstPartyCapital newsletter. It's been a hell of a week for ad tech, from curation whingeing to M&A deals to the launch of world-class podcasts. Let’s kick it off.
Pixels, The Vertical Video Specialist, Raising £200K in EIS Raise
Pixels has been hitting some interesting milestones lately. Having inked an exclusive content deal with Sky for its football content and closed out its £250K SEIS round, the company has been hurtling toward an end-of-year revenue figure of $1 million.
The vertical video champion is blazing a trail in the new category, building a premium vertical video solution around its proprietary tech platform, custom AI model and contextual targeting.
Readers, Pixels is our Teads bet (sold twice for a combined $1.3 billion valuation). Go big or go the f*** home is what we are saying here. There is no other way to describe it.
This is a full-frontal assault on the managed service prize. Pixels is the unapologetic cutting-edge ad network primed for scale.
This round has £200K (EIS for UK investors) available. The next stop is a Series A.
Looking for more information?
We did a fresh new interview with Alex Powell, CEO of Pixels:
Have a look at the Pixels deck: https://pitch.com/v/pixels-business-intro---syndicate-ucgdcb.
Why are FPC investing? Here are seven reasons why we are big on Pixels:
Pixels has built vRoll™ (vertical roll), a vertical video ad unit that we are calling “the TikTok-ification of the open web”. Its core objectives are to help publishers increase yield and deliver KPIs for advertisers.
Pixels is already making money, generating £500K ARR, and is poised to close the year with a $1M+ net revenue run rate, a testament to its potential for substantial growth.
Pixels is a game-changer, diverting funds from large walled gardens and excelling in performance - a boon for agencies seeking alternatives that can deliver superior performance and margin.
Pixels has built its proprietary stack, including a proprietary video player. It also has exclusive third-party video content partnerships and a real-time production platform to serve contextually relevant content to users.
Pixels has built its own AI (secret sauce) trained on trending news stories to help power recommendations and keep users engaged while in the vRoll™. The Pixels algorithm keeps users consuming quality content and ads.
For UK investors, this £200K is completely EIS covered, giving you a 30% tax rebate on the investment and no CGT to pay if the shares are held for at least 3 years.
Pixels is a rising star in our portfolio, and this goes the distance - a US market entry beckons, with a decent exit to follow.
This is the type of deal that does exceptionally well on the platform. Real revenue. Real momentum. And a moat.
If you want to learn more about this Pixels round - contact[AT]firstpartycapital.com.
We will be hosting a live webinar in a couple of weeks. We will send details next week.
The Launch Of The Greatest (Only) Financial Ad Tech Podcast Ever
Have you ever wondered if too many ad tech podcasts float around the ether? FPC asks that very question every other day as another hour of audio wonder hits the Spotify/Apple feed.
That’s why we are bringing another podcast for your delight. We are different, though.
For starters, it’s a half hour. We do not want to steal an hour of your precious time. Thirty minutes is enough.
Secondly, we only discuss money in ad tech. Expect high-octane hot takes on M&A, fundraising, and ad tech companies pushing the envelope - the weekly macro and micro financial trends driving the ad tech sector.
Thirdly, we will make it entertaining. Otherwise, what is the point?
Now, a few disclaimers on The FPC Podcast:
Unlike the Current and other industry podcasts, we will not pretend to be objective because we won't be. We are 100% going to promote our book. Our world-class portfolio is hands down the finest collection of ad tech companies in the industry. Why pretend otherwise? It's good to be straight about that.
Our guests will ALWAYS be fund LPs and portfolio company CEOs. With about 200 LPs, we won’t be short on guests, ever.
If you are not an FPC LP or portfolio company CEO, you are on there to be pitched. Why haven’t you invested in the FPC fund? Come on now. Joking - but not joking.
Our objectives with The FPC Podcast are (transparently) to 1) increase investment in the fund, 2) raise the profile of our portfolio companies, and 3) attract more investment into ad tech. It’s the finest thirty minutes of propaganda you will ever consume.
Now, if 30 minutes of unrefined propaganda and bleeding-edge financial ad tech thinking is your type of entertainment, please do subscribe.
We are on Spotify:
We are on Apple:
And if that fails, you can listen to it here in full: https://newsletter.firstpartycapital.com/p/episode-1-launching-the-fpc-podcast-0d4.
On that note, loyal reader, FPC will sign off on this edition. May your media arbitrage always be magnificent.