Covatic covets $1.1m investment

Covatic, a UK-based mobile video publishing software spinout from University of Oxford, received £850,000 ($1.1m) yesterday in a round featuring the university’s venturing fund, Oxford Sciences Innovation.
The round was led by MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund, a UK government-backed commercialisation vehicle managed by Mercia Fund Managers, and also featured non-profit agency Creative England, unnamed private investors and members of Covatic’s management team.
Founded in 2016, Covatic is working on a software platform called Serendipity that enables media broadcasters to tailor mobile content and marketing to specific user habits.
Serendipity works by building an engagement schedule for each user to predict how they will interact with their mobile device, without exposing any personal data. Covatic will use the funding for recruitment, filling six new technical and management roles as it moves its software closer to market.
The company has already developed a prototype for public broadcaster BBC and is negotiating with other media companies which could deploy the platform by the end of 2018.
Covatic has raised more than $2.1m in funding to date, it said, including an undisclosed sum from University of Oxford Innovation Fund III that was received in February 2017. Innovation Fund III is managed by Parkwalk Advisors, a subsidiary of commercialisation firm IP Group.
Julian Dennard, fund principal at Mercia Fund Managers, said: “The ability to personalise data has been a major factor in the success of tech giants like Amazon and Google.
“Covatic’s platform allows broadcasters to tailor their content to individual consumer needs and this funding will allow the company to begin tapping into a huge potential market.”