Arcametrics is one of those startups that I’ve come into contact with several times, mentioned in an article or two, but never really got to know. Don’t blame me, they’re quiet — quiet in the sense that they don’t make a lot of noise around what they’re doing, but when people see what they’re up to, the value is kind of obvious.
It’s the kind of thing you really don’t have to talk about.
But for the record, Arcametrics’ proprietary technology looks for patterns to tie together anonymous online behavioral data with offline transactional data. They find audiences that have a big probability of being sold a certain type of product, and sell that audience via an exchange.
In that, Arcametrics just signed a deal with BlueKai, the largest provider of this type of customer targeting data, to be a part of their exchange. It’s the biggest deal in their history, although they have a few more on tap as well.
I had first heard of Arcametrics when they were announced as the first class of Triangle Startup Factory (the class after the Launchbox class), but I found that as that class went along, I got to know all of the other startups better.
At Triangle Startup Factory pitch day, this is in June of last year, Arcametrics’ pitch didn’t really stand out — not that the model was bad or the performance was bad, it just wasn’t something I remembered being particularly engaging.
A classic all-steak-and-no-sizzle situation, and not that I’m looking for sizzle, but on a stage with five other similarly accelerated startups, there has to be something there to invoke separation.
Something did change, quietly, for Arcametrics during their semester at TSF. It was there that they were introduced to Paolo DiVincenzo, who had been brought in to speak to all the companies. It was there where he talked to them about using their products for online advertising (they had currently been on a healthcare and financial servies mission).
As that vision started to gel, Arcametrics brought DiVincenzo on as CEO, and immediately began to pivot. The traction they were getting proved out the model, ultimately signifying the demand was there.
By October, Arcametrics were lining up channel partners and data contributors, securing contracts, and raising a seed round which ultimately closed in January of this year.
In November, they won an NC IDEA grant and used those funds to begin automating their heretofore batch-oriented processes. Today, they continue to onboard customers while building out the automation.
Now that they have a product and channel and they’re pushing product into that channel, they’re shifting focus to revenue. They’re raising Series A (quietly), and hoping to close at the end of the summer. By then, they’ll have proof of scalable revenue, a plan for growing the custom audience part of the business, and hard metrics around the performance, including revenue impact that comes from the value of the targeted data they deliver.
Arcametrcis is one of those examples that are prevalent here in the Triangle of low-noise, high-activity startups. It’s not that these are busting down doors with any more frequency than any of their peers, but it helps to check in with them every now and then, because before you know it, they’ll have reached that next level.
Quietly.
