University of Amsterdam spin-off female-led AI startup Sightcorp acquired by US-based Raydiant

San Francisco-based digital signage provider Raydiant announced on Thursday that it has acquired Amsterdam-based Sightcorp, an AI-powered audience analytics intelligence specialist for digital signage, digital out-of-home (DOOH) media, and in-store analytics.

With this development, both companies will create personalised on-screen, in-location experiences that generate audience and performance analytics to help them increase engagement, deliver valuable content, enhance messaging, and more.

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Founded in 2013 by Roberto Valenti and Theo Gevers, Sightcorp is a spinoff company from the University of Amsterdam. The company claims to make AI edge software solutions that bridge the gap between the online and real world.

Sightcorp provides anonymous in-store analytics to retailers and powers the DOOH ecosystem with ad performance metrics for advertisers, real-time audience reach for media network owners, and an impression-based currency for programmatic advertising.

The company says, “We are focusing on creating easy-to-use, low CPU intensive, and affordable audience measurement software solutions that provide our customers with accurate and actionable insights into their audiences.”

With the acquisition, Sightcorp’s office in Amsterdam will transition into the HQ for Raydiant’s activities in EMEA, and will continue to lead and grow the developments for R&D, AI, and other innovative technologies. Current CEO Joyce Caradonna will take on the leadership role in EMEA. The company has plans to also open offices in Lithuania and London, and grow the European team from 20 to 100 members in 2022.

Caradonna says, “This acquisition hits all of the synergy markers for us and will allow us to grow faster. We are very excited to continue investing big in R&D to create smart and innovative solutions that owners of on-premise media networks, agencies, and advertisers can use to deliver valuable content to their target audiences.”

Aim of this acquisition

According to Raydiant’s 2021 ‘State of Consumer Behavior’ report, 60 per cent of consumers are not in business with a brand over one bad in-location experience, while Think by Google cites that people are 40 per cent more likely to spend more than planned when they identify the shopping experience to be personalised. AI and digital signage solutions could play key roles in delivering that personalisation.

Raydiant and Sightcorp will provide dynamic, optimised content on screens powered by real-time audience and performance data insights. Retailers and media network owners will have the opportunity to sell advertising space at a premium along with ad performance metrics, targeting capabilities, and more.

Sightcorp’s technology allows media owners to provide advertisers and media buyers with meaningful audience insights and data visualisations based on live analysis captured anonymously on-camera, including opportunity to see (OTS), impression, and viewer counts, as well as attention, dwell times and demographics. To ensure privacy, the Sightcorp DeepSight Toolkit blurs all faces by default and is built to process all data offline and locally.

Raydiant CEO Bobby Marhamat says, “To survive and thrive in the future of brick and mortar, brands must deliver a seamless in-location customer experience that’s convenient, digital, and personalised; yet many are held back by the complexities and high price point of achieving these goals. We’ve built Raydiant to help solve these pain points and are thrilled to add Sightcorp’s technology into our product offerings to serve the evolving needs of brands, customers, and employees worldwide.”

Sightcorp lists key players such as Intel and Simply NUC as its partners. Raydiant works with brands such as First Bank, Dickey’s BBQ, Harvard University, The Salvation Army, Red Bull, Chick-Fil-A, and Thomson Reuters. Additionally, Raydiant works with the US gourmet burger chain Wahlburgers, owned by Raydiant investor Mark Wahlberg and family.

What does Raydiant offer?

Founded in 2017 by Tuan Ho, Raydiant is the in-location experience management platform that helps brands in retail, e-commerce, restaurants, and more, to create personalised and meaningful end-to-end content experiences. 

The company’s plug-and-play cloud-based solution helps its clients to create, manage and scale on-screen experiences across 1 or 100,000 locations, saving them time, resources and ‘logistical headaches’. Currently, the company serves more than 3,500 customers in 63 countries.

Prior to Sightcorp, Raydiant acquired Hoopla in 2021 to enable people-first workplaces to broadcast performance updates, recognise wins and share successes to unify communications across their hybrid or remote workplaces.