Finland’s NinaData raises €1.77M to help brands engage with in-moment audiences in their natural habitat; here’s how

Helsinki-based NinaData, a real-time contextual data platform for driving in-moment online results for brands, announced that it has raised $2M (approx €1.77M) in a fresh round of funding.

The company helps advertisers and programmatic advertising players by leveraging purpose-built knowledge graphs and deep learning AI to solve the major issue of removal of cookies and Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), which have caused rocketing costs for advertisers.

Investors and capital utilisation

The round was a hybrid of equity from previous investors and public and private loans.

Seasoned angel investor Riku Asikainen says, “Having followed and worked with the company for quite some time, we are extremely excited about the launch of NinaData, and I am convinced that the team has solved how brands can create value and grow their online operations without exploiting consumers’ information. I’m extremely happy and excited to help the founders build NinaData into a global growth company.”

The proceeds from this round will help the company to further accelerate the development and adoption of its purpose-built AI for contextual buying intent.

The problem NinaData is solving

According to the company, third-party cookies, the staple tool for targeting ads at online users, are becoming outdated. Even Google says it will stop supporting them by 2023. With Apple giving users the choice to block the IDFA identifier at an app level, advertisers no longer have the option to monitor user behaviour on non-browser apps.

Users are more aware of how their data is utilised and concerned about privacy issues. Companies need to find solutions that transition towards responsible and sustainable advertising, and for non-intrusive personalisation which prioritises user experience and trust as the new normal.

This is where NinaData comes in. The platform helps brands reach consumers at the exact moment they are making a purchase decision online. It offers an advanced contextual targeting technology that, according to the company, helps find the “perfect” ad placements across any web or app content.

What does NinaData offer?

The company’s contextual data platform uses purpose-built AI for the semantic analysis of text, video and images to build sustainable data value and insights for brands and content owners, thereby driving in-moment online results for brands. By using proprietary algorithms, NinaData provides URL-level buying intent classification for individual campaigns and destinations.

NinaData CEO Valtteri Pukander says, “We have developed a unique contextual buying intent platform with the aim of providing effective and meaningful targeting options for advertisers in the cookieless world. We have worked with advertisers in the US to deliver a significant uplift in Return on ad spend (ROAS) using the NinaData contextual buying intent platform compared to using their “legacy” behavioural targeting data.”

The company’s technology team combines extensive industry experience with technical know-how and a long background in building a scalable high-value and high-performance architecture for AI analytics of media content. 

NinaData claims its data scientists and management combine methodological skills with practical application experience. They have worked in the past as AI engineers, Machine Learning researchers, AI business managers, and co-founders of successful startups.