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Good Loop’s co-founders Amy Williams and Daniel Winterstein | Image credit: Good Loop

Online advertising can be annoying with pops up or auto-plays, and sometimes they just aren’t as good as they should be. Most of us block them if we can and resent them if we can’t. However, advertisers don’t want to be annoying, instead, all they want is to matter to their consumers. And this is where adtech startup Good Loop is looking to make a difference.

The London-based startup, which converts advertising money into charitable donations, announced on Thursday that it has raised $6.1M (approx €5.44M) in its Series A round of funding. With this round, the company has raised a total of $8.2M in funding to date.

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Investors in this round

The Series A was led by New York-based investment fund Quaestus Capital Management (QCM) with additional backing from Scottish Enterprise, impact investor SIS Ventures, European ad tech fund First Party Capital, and investment raised on the crowdfunding platform Seedrs.

Austin Davis, CEO at QCM, says, “Good Loop solves many long-standing issues in the sector. It is the paradigm shift that has been needed to regain consumer trust in transparent and ethical advertising that not only provides results to advertisers but also makes great contributions to the world through philanthropic giving.”

Kerry Sharp, Director of Growth Investments at Scottish Enterprise, adds, “This investment aligns with Scottish Enterprise’s net-zero framework and digital scale-up national programme that is focussed on growing Scotland’s digital tech scale-ups and highlights the talent in Scotland’s digital economy as Good Loop aims to disrupt advertising to create a virtuous business model and more inclusive economy.”

Capital utilisation

Good Loop claims that the raised funds will accelerate the company’s product roadmap, including the development of new solutions aimed at reducing digital advertising’s substantial carbon footprint. 

The company also plans to expand its international teams, including opening new offices in New York and Chicago, to serve its growing US markets that currently comprise 33 per cent of total revenue.

An ethical approach to advertising

Founded in 2016 by Amy Williams and later joined by Daniel Winterstein, Good Loop is an adtech platform that drives ad engagement by converting people’s attention into donations to good causes around the world.

Amy Williams says, “At the heart of our industry is an inherent value exchange between advertiser and consumer, and I’m on a mission to harness that value as a significant force for good. Through our respectful, positive ad platform, brands can treat people online as partners – rather than targets – united by a desire to have a meaningful social impact.”

How does it work?

Good Loop’s ad formats motivate people to watch an entire ad online by allowing them to ‘unlock’ a free charitable donation at the end of each spot. This strategy allows advertisers to receive more meaningful brand engagement while appealing to consumers’ goodwill by providing a cost-free means of philanthropy. 

This results in an average ad recall that is 4.5X higher than the industry standard, claims the company. Designated charities receive 50 per cent of ad revenue.

Some of its clients include Unilever, Nestle, Levi’s, Bose, H&M, PepsiCo, Adidas, NBC Universal, and Nike.

Good Loop has also launched a suite of solutions to help advertisers measure and offset the carbon cost of their digital ad campaigns, including its Carbon-Calculator and Green Ad Tag – a 1×1 tracking pixel that enables brands and agencies to track and offset the carbon cost of their digital advertising in real-time.

According to a statement from the company, demand for its ad programmatic solutions has grown 180 per cent in the last 12 months, while its purpose-powered ad formats have also now raised more than $5M for charities around the world, including Save The Children, WaterAid, Feeding America, and the WWF.