UCL Technology Fund and ParkWalk invest in adtech machine learning company MediaGamma

The UCL Technology Fund has invested in MediaGamma, the predictive analytics software company, as part of a £2m round in partnership with ParkWalk Advisors and the London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF).

MediaGamma has developed a world leading enterprise-grade reinforcement machine learning (self-learning) platform, delivering decisions in under five milliseconds. It has proven its technology in programmatic advertising, building and training more accurate user-profiling and bidding algorithms that vastly reduce customer acquisition costs for their clients.

The investment will enable MediaGamma to create a SaaS product and grow its team.  Over $30bn was spent on programmatic advertising in 2017, and MediaGamma has consistently proved that it can provide a world leading targeting capability.

MediaGamma was spun out by UCL Business in 2014 to commercialise research developed by Professor Jun Wang in UCL Computer Science. In 2016, the company became one of the early recipients of funding from the UCL Technology Fund which was used to engineer MediaGamma’s product to deliver lightening quick response times and secure initial commercial traction for its innovative adtech platform.

This is the second investment the UCL Technology Fund has completed in partnership with LCIF.

David Grimm, Investment Manager, UCL Technology Fund, says: “MediaGamma’s technology has, in a competitive field, proven itself to have world leading capabilities. We’re delighted by the progress they have made since our initial, small investment.

“The company has an excellent data science team, global existing client base and robust pipeline of potential customers. We are excited by the opportunities this funding round will unlock and enable MediaGamma to pursue.”

Rael Cline, CEO, MediaGamma, says: “This investment will enable us to harness the full potential of our technology by building a self-serve product. This takes advantage a growing appetite from companies to build their own machine learning capabilities, taking control and demanding transparency over the datasets. We will look to add more product development and sales expertise to our team to augment this process, while working in partnership with UCL academics at the global forefront of reinforcement learning innovation.”

For more information, please contact:

Jonathan Atkins/ Anthony Cornwell/ Matt Jones

Four Broadgate

Tel: 020 3697 4200

Email: AlbionPR@fourbroadgate.com

Notes to editor

UCL Technology Fund

The UCL Technology Fund is dedicated to investing in intellectual property commercialisation opportunities arising from UCL’s world-class research base, focusing in particular on the physical and life sciences. The Fund supports UCL in achieving the full potential of innovations that have prospects for outstanding societal and market impact, right through the development journey from initial proof of concept to practical commercial application.

The Fund is managed by Albion Capital, one of the largest independent venture capital investors in the UK, in collaboration with UCL Business PLC. For further information please visit: www.ucltf.co.uk

Albion Capital

Albion Capital is a leading independent investment manager with a long-term record of partnering ambitious business. The Albion Group has funds of just over £1 billion under investment management or administration. Albion Capital Group LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

UCL Business PLC
UCL Business PLC (UCLB) is a leading technology commercialisation company that supports research and innovations arising from UCL, one of the UK’s top research-led universities. UCLB has a successful track record and a strong reputation for identifying and protecting promising new technologies and innovations from UCL academics across the university. UCLB also provides technology transfer services to UCL’s associated hospitals; University College London Hospitals, Moorfields Eye Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal Free London Hospital. It invests directly in development projects to maximise the potential of the research and manages the commercialisation process of technologies from laboratory to market.

For further information, please visit: www.uclb.com

London Co-Investment Fund
The London Co-Investment Fund, led and managed by Funding London and supported by the Mayor of London, makes investments in seed stage digital, science and technology businesses in London. Funding London channel funding from Europe and the UK, through appointed fund managers to sustainable and ambitious London businesses. Returns generated from the funds go back into the London ecosystem, making investment available to the next generation.

This LCIF initiative is a partnership with Capital Enterprise (the membership body for universities, accelerators and incubators that support entrepreneurs in London). For more information, visit http://lcif.co and www.fundinglondon.co.uk

ParkWalk
Parkwalk invests in high growth, knowledge intensive companies seeking to develop and commercialise technology and innovation originating from UK universities, research intensive institutions and technology clusters.

Founded in 2009, Parkwalk is the largest EIS growth fund manager focused on university spin-outs, having raised over £175m to date and backed over 90 companies across its managed funds since inception. In February 2017 Parkwalk was acquired by IP Group plc, a FTSE 250 company with a market capitalisation of £1bn and the UK’s leading developer of intellectual property-based businesses.

The Parkwalk investment vehicles include the evergreen Parkwalk Opportunities Fund, the University of Cambridge Enterprise Funds, the University of Oxford Innovation Funds and the University of Bristol Enterprise Funds.

For more information, visit www.parkwalkadvisors.com