Com Olho raises INR 1.8 CR in a seed round led by IPV

Cyber security & IP-led analytics startup Com Olho has raised INR 1.8 CR in a Seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The funds raised will be utilised towards Tech Hiring, Tech Stack improvement and aggressive market penetration (India, MENA & APAC).

Com Olho is India's first company to be granted a patent for non-rule-based Ad fraud detection. Using this, the company has been able to provide at least 20% MoM savings to even cost per sale (CPS) campaigns and improve ad viewability by their brand safety toolkit. 

The Company uses deep learning and clustering to analyse enterprises’ data and identify fraudulent patterns with a high probability of success. The company holds 3 patents (1 granted, 1 published in India, and has one published application with the United States Patent Office.)

Mitesh Shah, Co-Founder, Inflection Point Ventures says, “As digital marketing, product and performance marketing become the new age mantra for the companies, they are also dealing with ad fraud issues, return on media spends and efficacy delivered via each ad done. So far, there is no definitive way to determine any of these factors. Com Olho using its patented technology can provide this intensive knowledge and their reports that can be administered to challenge payouts, should the need arise for exposing any ad fraud. We believe we are the first mover in such a cutting-edge segment. As we move closer towards Metaverse and digital life, there is bound to be concern about customer data. Com Olho is rightly poised to leverage their understanding of everything digital.”

Com Olho’s product suite comprises an end-to-end AI-based solution from identifying sources of malpractice, empirically proving the fraud, and providing a ready real-time dashboard with interpretation, resulting in deterministic savings. 

The company is also working towards first-party data and encrypted digital governance. The company works with some of the leading global financial and e-commerce companies like Indiabulls Group, Airtel, Aditya Birla Group, Revv, etc.

The team at Com Olho is led by Abhinav who has spent a significant part of his career in building and scaling profitable business units with over 7+ years of experience in product management, tech sales, big data and machine learning.

Com Olho is a registered name under Com Olho IT Private Limited. They are a recognized startup by Startup India, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India.

Abhinav Bangia, Founder & CTO, Com Olho says, “We at Com Olho create innovative – AI-based technology to help enterprises and governments mitigate the risks arising from various kinds of digital frauds. We are India’s first company to get a patent grant for advertising fraud detection, to which Indian advertisers will lose 6000 CR in 2022. The team at IPV believed in our cause and vision and are supporting us with growth strategy and investment. IPV demonstrates entrepreneurial spirit in their venture capital practices, which I think clearly differentiates them from the rest. The entire fund-raising process was well structured, seamless and to the point.”

Lloyd Mathias, Co-Founder & Advisor, Com Olho says, “Ad Fraud is becoming a huge issue with Digital Advertising’s share of total ad spend growing. While performance marketing has been driving attribution metrics like cost per click, cost per engagement, and cost per transaction; what many marketers don’t realise is that many of these clicks, transactions and engagement are fraudulent and just a way to claim attribution. Com Olho’s solution is just what digital advertisers need to reduce if not eliminate digital Ad fraud completely.”

The Indian digital advertising market is large, with advertisers expected to spend INR 24K crore in mobile ads by 2022, with INR 6,000 crore of that amount estimated to lose out to ad frauds. 

Com Olho aims to address 10% of this market, i.e., INR 600 crore Advertisers worldwide will spend more than USD 740 Bn on digital advertising by 2022. The losses to digital advertising fraud would amount to USD 42 Bn by 2022. They have an early mover advantage in a relatively nascent market.

About Com Olho

Com Olho is a cyber security and IP-led analytics platform. They make it easy for CXOs to understand behavioural anomalies in their customer data & help them qualitatively audit their digital media spending & digital brand presence to provide savings & better return on ad spending. 

The company was founded by Abhinav Bangia in 2019 & is the first Indian company to be granted a patent for a system & method to detect advertising fraud at the Indian Patent Office, Government of India.

About IPV

Inflection Point Ventures is an angel investing platform with over 6300 CXOs, HNIs and Professionals to together invest in startups. The firm supports new-age entrepreneurs by providing them with monetary & experiential capital and connecting them with a diverse group of investors.