Read the story from Megan Graham in the Wall Street Journal’s CMO Today, or read the full press release to learn more.
Leading data, media measurement and analytics company joins Shamrock’s portfolio of data and advertising industry leaders.
EDO, a data, measurement, and analytics software company with a customer base encompassing top brands in all major verticals, advertising agencies and all major TV networks and streamers, today announced the closing of an $80 million strategic growth investment from Shamrock Capital, a Los Angeles-based investment firm specializing in media, entertainment, communications, and related sectors.
The investment provides EDO with significant capital to scale its rapidly growing business in outcome measurement for Convergent TV by growing its world-class team, further enhancing its first-of-its-kind Ad EnGage Convergent TV analytics platform, and expanding its partner network of data sources. The investment comes at a critical moment for the advertising and media & entertainment industries as EDO meets the growing opportunity to apply the company’s pioneering data science capabilities to a changed landscape for consumer behavior and media measurement.
“EDO’s customers and the tectonic ruptures in the market have validated our ambitious vision to transcend the antiquated, obsolete methods that have defined TV measurement for too long and put a serious drag on the value and creativity of the whole media & entertainment complex,” said EDO co-founder Edward Norton. “It’s not an overstatement to say that our CEO, Kevin Krim, and the entire EDO team represent an incomparable combination and caliber of industry experience plus data science and engineering talent. And that talent ‘alpha’ is redefining daily what brands, agencies and creators expect in terms of investment-grade insight into what precisely their marketing investments are achieving. With EDO, they can finally and confidently know what works.”
“Over the past 40 years, Shamrock has developed deep expertise in the rapidly evolving media and entertainment industry. As we studied the opportunity in Convergent TV measurement and data, we quickly identified EDO as a strategically differentiated player at the forefront of innovation in a massively valuable global ecosystem,” said Shamrock Capital Partner Laura Held. “EDO has amassed an impressive network of partners, clients and team members who we believe are reshaping what is possible from Convergent TV measurement, ad performance, and consumer engagement insights. We look forward to working closely with the EDO team on their continued growth.”
EDO was founded in 2015 by Edward Norton and Dr. Daniel Nadler. The two first teamed up when Norton was among the first investors in Nadler’s company, Kensho Technologies. Kensho built predictive artificial intelligence systems for large financial institutions and the US intelligence community, and was acquired by S&P Global for over $700 million. Convinced there was an equally significant opportunity to apply Nadler’s pioneering data science strategies to media & entertainment and advertising, Norton and Nadler recruited some of the most sought-after engineers, data scientists and media veterans, including EDO President & CEO Kevin Krim, the former head of CNBC Digital.
“With tens of billions in advertising at stake amid an ever-competitive Convergent TV landscape, many of the largest and most dynamic brands, agencies, technology platforms, studios and networks have come to trust and depend on EDO. We’ve fundamentally changed what is expected from the effectiveness of TV advertising — weak proxies and soft signal don’t cut it anymore when our customers know they can get real-time, always-on measurement that confidently predicts business outcomes and allows them to optimize while campaigns are in flight,” said Krim. “The industry is hungry for a whole new definition of ‘currency,’ especially one that inherently reflects the fair value of what’s being bought and sold — that is outcome measurement. We’re thrilled to earn the support of Shamrock Capital, which shares our vision and brings an outstanding track record of helping companies turbocharge their growth.”
Added EDO co-founder Dr. Daniel Nadler, “There are very few people who, in my experience, can both lead product development of advanced machine learning and applied AI at this level and navigate the byzantine ecosystem of a legacy marketplace like media measurement. Kevin and team’s capacity to do both brilliantly has been the key to EDO achieving impressive market penetration on the pure strength of the technology. It’s truly remarkable what they have accomplished with a lean org, and this partnership with Shamrock will undoubtedly fuel the EDO team to chew up a lot of the track even quicker.”
In addition to Shamrock’s strategic growth investment, EDO will expand its Board of Directors, which currently consists of Norton, Nadler, and legendary investor Jim Breyer, to include three new members: Shamrock Capital Partner Laura Held and Vice President Alicia Zhu, and EDO President & CEO Kevin Krim. Bringing deep industry experience to the board, Held also serves as a director of Adweek, Bayard and Wpromote and previously held positions with The Walt Disney Company, The Carlyle Group and Credit Suisse. In her role at Shamrock, Zhu serves as a director of Skillable and has supported other Shamrock Capital investments including Ad Results Media and Pixellot.
With offices in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, EDO counts leading global brands, media networks, and creative, marketing and research professionals among its roster of clients, including NBCUniversal, IBM, Subway, Royal Caribbean, New Balance, Amazon Studios, Fox, Nissan, SoFi, TaylorMade, Kia, Univision, Paramount, Hyundai, CBS, Toyota, Discovery, Warner Bros., Tracfone and Patron.
Alongside Shamrock Capital and EDO’s Seed and Series A investor Breyer Capital, EDO counts top advertising and finance leaders among its early backers, including former Vista Equity co-founder and president Brian Sheth, Moat co-founder Jonah Goodhart, Vista Equity co-founder and CEO Robert F. Smith, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, former Uber CFO and Google treasurer and chief accountant Brent Callinicos, and Goldman Sachs co-head of TMT investment banking Sam Britton.
Moelis & Company LLC served as exclusive financial advisor and Cooley LLP as legal advisor to EDO. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as legal advisor to Shamrock Capital on the transaction.