Syndicate Investors ♥️ Contxt Media; Lumen Is Attention; The Cannes Social Invite
Apologies for the skipped week, readers. Running a world-class early-stage ad tech-focused fund brings too many time pressures. We will get back to the two-week schedule - that’s an ad tech promise. We have a bumper edition this week, so let’s get stuck in.
Syndicate Investors ♥️ Contxt Media
After a long hiatus, we are delighted to bring a new deal back to our POWERFUL investor syndicate - and this one is a banger.
As an interesting side note, our syndicate has thus far invested over 3 million dollars in various companies. Ad tech stat of the week, surely?
Two deals work best on the FPC syndicate: 1) the category-winning series A companies and 2) the early-stage specialist tech platform startups.
Today’s deal is the latter. This is one of the most promising startups in the portfolio. It is lean and has honed in on a neglected but potentially lucrative area of the ad tech ecosystem.
We are bringing Contxt Media to the platform. The company wants to raise £250K at a £2.5 million post-money valuation.
So, what is Contxt Media? FPC defines it as a sell-side enrichment platform for the VOD sector. In a nutshell, it helps publishers increase yield from VOD, FAST, and CTV.
What’s got us excited is where it seems to have landed even in this early stage of existence - namely, sell-side YouTube monetisation.
Typically, most ad tech companies operate on the buy-side with a managed service, helping to bolster margins.
What is often neglected is YT's direct selling by publishers, MCNs, and large media companies. But video categorisation and (consequently) monetisation on YT is awful.
Contxt Media sits at the content layer, analysing video, understanding language/image-based contextual signals, segmenting for YouTube targeting, and automating integration with Google’s ad stack.
Contxt Media ultimately helps sales teams sell more YT-based inventory, relying less on lower-yielding Adx demand.
If you think this is a small TAM, think again. YouTube will have $33 billion running through the platform this year. At least 10% will be directly sold on a PG basis - and nobody in ad tech seems to care.
The deal is now live on the platform. It includes a deeper dive into the tech and a sit-down with Contxt Media CEO Ed French.
You can access it using the following URL: https://investors.firstpartycapital.com/deal/detail/74719138-8755-4ff1-bb8a-31fa82b979a6.
This deal is fully covered by SEIS, meaning UK investors can get a 50% tax rebate on their investment. Winner.
FPC has already invested in Contxt Media from the fund, and we will invest more money later this year.
Here are seven reasons why FPC loves this deal:
Contxt Media is the contextual layer for VOD, working with publishers and creators to increase video & CTV yield.
Contxt Media’s real sweet spot is on the YouTube sell-side, where it helps publishers, MCNs, and creators transcribe video content, build categorisation for YT (a function Google cannot deliver), and automate integration into GAM for PG sellers.
YouTube will attract $33 billion in spending this year, bigger than the entire European TV ad market combined (£28 billion). Still, YouTube is woefully underrepresented by ad tech - and practically non-existent on the sell side.
Thousands of media companies and creators sell YT PG deals to agencies, making up about 10%+ of YT spend. Contxt Media delivers a greater yield for this segment of customers—and, more importantly, more money.
FPC can integrate Contxt Media into its global network. We already have 5-6 resellers lined up. Unlike most managed service businesses, it's also a lean tech machine. There is no need for IO slingers. Empower your customers - not obfuscate margin.
For UK investors, this £250K is completely SEIS covered, giving you a 50% tax rebate on the investment.
Contxt Media is one of FPC’s best portfolio companies, and we love it. It targets an underserved market, can be scaled easily through the FPC network, and has proper tech. We expect it to be taken out early.
Why Lumen Powers Attention
Lumen is the leading attention platform globally. If you don’t want to believe FPC, go to Snap’s business page and read about how Lumen effectively powers its measurement.
Snap is one of many partners Lumen works with. It is the go-to tech layer for attention. Let’s understand why Lumen is number one in attention:
Proprietary data: Unlike many attention vendors trading on name recognition, Lumen owns the data powering its attention models. This will be important going forward as attention becomes even more embedded in targeting and measurement. Ultimately, you want to be the ad tech arms dealer not the guy fighting hand-to-hand in the trenches.
Proprietary technology: Lumen has built specialist eye-tracking technology for its extensive attention panel. This is important because technology is sometimes required to make attention work. Suppositions aren’t going to cut in a business environment.
Real attention versus enhanced viewability: Again, this is important for the long-term success of attention. Vendors like DV and others are building models based on historical campaign data. It’s akin to LLMs being fed by synthetic content. Eventually, models go awry without any real-time data. Lumen has this, one of the key reasons it will win.
FPC tie-up: This last one is more of a compliment to Lumen than FPC. When a company is as good as Lumen, it’s easy for our fund to help scale. Our global investor and reseller network accelerate category winners. Lumen is the attention winner.
Sign Up For The Cannes Social
We will host our network party in Cannes again in partnership with ExchangeWire this year. We have rebranded our get-together, The Cannes Social - because that’s what it is.
The drinks networking party will be held at Ma Nolan’s on Tuesday, June 18, from 4 to 7 p.m. CET. We are taking over the whole pub for the afternoon. FPC would love to see you all there.
You can book your spot for The Cannes Social here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-cannes-social-by-firstpartycapital-exchangewire-tickets-879552945537?aff=oddtdtcreator.
Make sure to book early, as this was one of the most coveted events at Cannes last year - with no minor celebrity or over-the-hill artist in sight apart from a clatter of ad tech legends.
If you are interested in co-sponsoring, contact us (CONTACT [AT] FIRSTPARTYCAPITAL.COM). Partnerships for this event are not a money-making exercise - it is more of a cost-covering strategy.
Thanks for reading, And make sure you get involved in the Contxt Media deal. Until next time, readers.