Aconex founders, EVP back OOH advertising tracker Veridooh

“We were lucky that Unilever and PHD Media Australia came on board prior to our minimum viable product [being finished], and we built out the metrics, analysis and dashboard that agencies wanted to see. They become our foundational clients.”

The company launched its flagship SmartCreative product in late 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

The co-founders, who met via mutual friends, quickly won the GroupM and Omnicom Media Group advertising agencies as clients, but three months after launch lockdowns began and out-of-home advertising dried up.

Between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of all advertising spend was paused, Mr Moubayed said, but they were confident when lockdowns ended the bounce back would be rapid.

“I didn’t think lockdowns would be going for two years,” Mr Moubayed said.

“We took stock that first month... made sure we didn’t lose any staff, and while we didn’t get paid in that period, we doubled down on our technology and moved from an MVP to something that would be scalable.

“We doubled down on the technology and made sure it would be ready on the other side [of the lockdown-induced slowdown].”

Since lockdowns ended, outdoor advertising has rebounded, but Mr Yang said it’s not yet at 2019 levels.

The start-up now has more than 140 clients in Australia and New Zealand, including Google, Amazon and McDonald’s. It employs 20 staff and is averaging 400 per cent year-on-year revenue growth.

The $5 million Series A raise is the first capital raised by the business.

EVP led the round and partner Dan Szekely will join the Veridooh board.

EVP investment associate Britt Bloom was introduced to the start-up in mid-2021, but Veridooh was not ready to raise. If they had raised in 2021, Mr Szekely admits they could have gotten a higher valuation, prior to the valuation crunch in 2022, triggered by the listed tech sell-off.

“Valuations are getting squeezed, investors are pulling term sheets and changing deal terms, but we don’t do that,” Mr Szekely said.

“They’ve got 400 per cent growth and 140 flagship clients... during a period when people weren’t in shopping centres and digital out-of-home marketing spending was significantly dampened. If you can perform that way in a COVID-19 downturn, there is an enormous amount of accrued momentum in the customer base when they come back, and there will be a substantial pickup in revenue.”