ClearTrust, a leading new-age ad tracking and fraud detection platform, has announced that it has raised US $1.9 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Venture Capital firm Ideaspring Capital with participation from Piper Serica Angel Fund.
Existing investor Alacrity India also participated in the round. Before the new round, ClearTrust had raised $200,000 in seed round from Alacrity India, Limelight UK, and ThinkNext LLC in 2021. The advent of new digital advertising formats and lack of standardization has exposed advertisers and publishers to increased traffic quality risks, and there has been a spurt in bot and invalid traffic. Founded in 2020 by seasoned tech visionaries Deepankar Biswas and Raja TN, ClearTrust helps advertising ops , media buying companies and teams worldwide with its state-of-the-art tracking and fraud detection platform. It helps advertisers, agencies and networks to achieve higher ROI on their digital campaigns by removing fraudulent and fake activity from their campaigns, thereby protecting AdSpend and brands’ reputation.
It also helps digital publishers to protect their ad-revenues from fake and invalid traffic in real time. With the fresh funding, the company plans to expand its operations into North America and further invest in research and development in AI, cybersecurity, and deep tech to develop critical filters that will help detect advertising frauds that have become one of the biggest threats to the advertising industry lately. ClearTrust has 34 clients in the US, Israel, India, and Europe.
Deepankar Biswas, Co-founder and CEO of ClearTrust, who has extensive experience in media buying and internet, said, “We are all about making online advertising safe and trustworthy. Our ambition is to pioneer paradigm shifts, particularly in combating ad fraud, a challenge that plagues the digital advertising space globally. With a keen focus on expanding into the US market, this funding propels us towards innovating and implementing solutions that ensure the integrity and efficiency of online advertising.”
To this, Raja TN, co-founder and CTO of ClearTrust, added, “The rapid growth of ad inventory and outpacing demand has made digital advertising a breeding ground for fraudsters to exploit unsuspecting brands. Programmatic media traders are particularly vulnerable, often hindered by complex and costly anti-fraud technologies, leading to a trust deficit with advertisers. ClearTrust helps save costs by at least 30%.”
With this funding in place, ClearTrust wants to be a leader in this segment by targeting a served available market of $10 billion annually. The company has witnessed a 3X annual growth for the last two years and aims for a yearly revenue of $10 million by 2027.
The platform offers security solutions, including traffic scanning, precise tracking, and a real-time dashboard with over 140+ traffic scoring filters, system alerts, and many customer-centric features.
On funding, Ideaspring Capital, Managing Partner, Naganand Doraswamy said, “Ideaspring Capital is excited to partner with Deepankar and Raja, Co-Founders of ClearTrust. As digital ad formats evolve and more ads are trading programmatically, fraud detection processes are becoming complex. This results in 23% of all advertising spend being lost to fraud, estimated to reach $170Bn by 2028. Cleartrust real-time, scalable cybersecurity platform will mitigate this risk. The platform works towards increasing revenue-generating traffic for advertisers, publishers, and ad networks.
To this, Abhay Agarwal, Founder of Piper Serica Angel Fund, said, “Ad frauds are an escalating threat to the advertising industry that cost advertisers about $170 billion in 2028 as per various reports. We feel ClearTrust has created some cutting-edge technologies to tackle these challenges head-on and efficiently, making it easier for companies to spot invalid and fake ad activity. We expect the company to be a global player in the next 2-3 years, helping large multinational companies run safe advertising and digital campaigns profitably and with increased ROI.” ClearTrust products, ClearScan and ClearTrack, are designed to protect publishers, networks, brands, and agencies from invalid traffic and fraudulent activities, ensuring the integrity and profitability of digital campaigns.
