NEW YORK, Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Smartly.io, a Facebook advertising creative, optimization and automation tool that recently surpassed $1 billion in annual ad spend on its platform, today announced a $20 million investment by Highland Europe. After two years of profitability, Smartly.io pursued a secondary funding round, in which part of existing stakeholders' shares were sold, to build upon the strength of its Board of Directors and tap into Highland Europe's experience building high-growth companies and the executive teams behind them.
"With two billion monthly active users, Facebook is one of the most important channels for acquiring and growing customers online and we see most of our portfolio companies investing in it heavily," said Irena Goldenberg, General Partner, Highland Europe. "Many are even already using Smartly.io, who's proven in very short time that its people, culture and technology have all come together in just the right combination to deliver tremendous returns to marketers. Social's share of ad spend is only growing, and we're excited to become a part of Smartly.io's continued growth alongside it."
Creative Automation is the single biggest reason Smartly.io has grown as fast as it has, with companies relying on it to automatically pull product images into compelling ads in formats such as Dynamic Ads for Products, Facebook Canvas & Collection Ads, and Instagram Stories. Its upcoming automated video templates is in beta, with positive feedback and strong demand as video advertising expands rapidly. Over 500 brands and agencies including eBay, Zillow, JustFab, Fabletics, BARK, Hopper, SkyScanner, Lazada, Zalora and Deliveroo already rely on Smartly.io to run Facebook advertising at scale.
"In working with Smartly, we can truly envision a future where everything is automated," said Laura Joukovski, SVP of Media + Analytics, TechStyle Fashion Group. "Smartly's Dynamic Image Templates have already changed the way we do business. Creating customised videos manually is hard, which is why we're extremely excited about taking our advertising to the next level with video automation."
"In four short years, we've assembled a team of extremely fast learning and hardworking people who helped us achieve extremely high growth and profitability. Everyone is an owner at Smartly.io and a secondary round was a way for us to reward the entire team and take off any pressure to sell or IPO," said Kristo Ovaska, founder and CEO, Smartly.io. "We, in return, gained a partner that will help us take our business to the next level through their network, by helping us build out a global leadership team and with access to a large fund if we ever need capital for acquisitions or more aggressive expansion. It gives us what we need to keep focusing on building a great company."
To learn more about how Smartly.io automates and optimizes Facebook and Instagram advertising at scale, visit www.smartly.io.
About Smartly.io
Smartly.io is a SaaS company that automates Facebook and Instagram advertising at scale for leading global advertisers. The Smartly platform helps brands create, launch, and optimize campaigns with first-to-market solutions and features. Founded in 2013, Smartly.io is a fast-growing team of over 160 Smartlies in Helsinki, Berlin, New York, Singapore, San Francisco, Dubai and Buenos Aires.
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SOURCE Smartly.io
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