Data, measurement and analytics software company EDO Inc. took in an $80 million investment from Los Angeles-based investment firm Shamrock Capital, providing the company the ability to grow its team, analytics platform and partner network.
EDO, which is based in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, helps advertisers measure the actions that viewers take in response to TV ads, using data on consumers’ online search activity for a brand or product. The company will be competing with the marketing research juggernaut Nielsen following its investment.
Clients of EDO include NBCUniversal, IBM, Amazon Studios, CBS, Fox, Warner Bros., Nissan, Kia, Hyundai and more.
“EDO’s customers and the tectonic ruptures in the market have validated our ambitious vision to transcend the antiquated, obsolete methods that have defined TV measurement for too long and put a serious drag on the value and creativity of the whole media and entertainment complex,” EDO co-founder and actor Edward Norton said in a statement.
EDO was founded in 2015 by Norton and Daniel Nadler. Norton was among the first investors in Nadler’s former company, Kensho Technologies. The company built predictive artificial intelligence systems for large financial institutions and the U.S. intelligence community and was eventually acquired for more than $700 million by S&P Global.
EDO is led by Chief Executive Kevin Krim, the former head of CNBC Digital.
“Kevin and team’s capacity to do both brilliantly has been the key to EDO achieving impressive market penetration on the pure strength of the technology,” Nadler said in a statement. “It’s truly remarkable what they have accomplished with a lean org, and this partnership with Shamrock will undoubtedly fuel the EDO team to chew up a lot of the track even quicker.”
The EDO board will be expanded in addition to Shamrock’s investment, bringing on Krim, Shamrock Capital Partner Laura Held and Shamrock Vice President Alicia Zhu. The existing roster was made up of Norton, Nadler, and venture capitalist Jim Breyer.
“As we studied the opportunity in convergent TV measurement and data, we quickly identified EDO as a strategically differentiated player at the forefront of innovation in a massively valuable global ecosystem,” Held said in a statement. “EDO has amassed an impressive network of partners, clients and team members who we believe are reshaping what is possible from convergent TV measurement, ad performance and consumer engagement insights.” Shamrock was founded by the late Roy Disney in 1978 as a family investment firm.
