TVision, a data company that measures the habits of television viewers, announced Monday it raised $16 million in fresh funding. The round was led by SIG Asia Investments, an affiliate of global trading firm Susquehanna International Group.
Born out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, TVision uses an in-home panel and computer vision technology to anonymously record what is playing on a TV, who is watching it and how much attention they are paying to it. The company claims it can do all this without invading the viewer’s privacy.
TVision’s tech is mainly focused on connected TVs rather than computers or mobile devices. But, through a new partnership with Oracle Data Cloud’s Moat, it also offers cross-platform insights. Customers like Hulu, Roku and Fox can use all this data to better understand what content is resonating with what audiences, which then helps the platforms make more informed decisions about programming.
The last time Built In caught up with TVision was in 2018, when it had just closed on an $11.5 million funding round.
A lot has happened since then, both in the company and the rest of the world. Traditional cable TV has been brought to its knees amid the pandemic as millions of Americans cut the cord and turn to streaming platforms like Netflix, changing the way TV content is consumed. At the same time, advertisers are demanding more transparency and accountability when it comes to their media investments. TVision sits at the intersection of these two shifts.
“TV viewing is rapidly changing. The TV industry is evolving just as quickly, with a heavy emphasis placed on improving TV measurement,” TVision co-founder and CEO Yan Liu said in a statement. “TVision is uniquely positioned to provide advertisers, networks, streaming platforms, content creators and measurement firms with the data and analytics required to succeed in a transformed TV environment. Our atomic-level TV viewing engagement data gives our clients and partners the means to out-perform the industry.”
Indeed, TVision claims to have created the only solution on the market to measure ad attention across major streaming platforms with its new CTV Ad platform. It also provides data sets that allow TV measurement companies to go beyond just household measurement to collect person-level data too. This is meant to give more meaningful insight into ad reach.
Looking ahead, the company says it plans to use this latest investment to continue expanding its services, as well as its sales, marketing and research efforts. TVision is also hiring at its Boston headquarters and NYC office, with several open positions across its engineering, finance and sales teams available right now.
