Ad-targeting startup Metadata announced it has raised $2 million in seed funding.
Co-founder and CEO Gil Allouche said the company’s technology offers an effective way for businesses that sell to other businesses to find and target new potential customers through advertising.
Companies connect their Salesforce and other CRM accounts, then Metadata uses third-party data to help them target their ads at people who are similar to the existing customers and prospects. Allouche said Metadata isn’t looking at everyone in the sales database, but rather qualified leads who have actually expressed interest in your product: “It makes our targeting very, very effective.”
“We want to be the one place where [B2B businesses] can essentially have their demand generation machine on auto pilot,” he added. “With every new campaign, they just click on Amplify That, put their goal or their budget and it automatically works in the background.”
Advertisers include Cisco, Comcast and UBM. As for where the ads actually run, Metadata runs search and social campaigns. Allouche said the startup’s also exploring banner advertising, but it turns out that Facebook is “surprisingly, an extremely effective channel.”
The funding (which was also revealed in a regulatory filing) was led by Hillsven Capital, with participation from Greycroft, 500 Startups, Right Side Capital Partners and various angel investors.