9-Month-Old Akron Software Company Rolls Out Predictive Budget Recommendations to Users Globally and Announces $500k in Seed Funding from JumpStart Inc. and Others

On the second floor of an unassuming office building in Akron, Ohio—above an East of Chicago Pizza and an Einstein Bros. Bagels—a team of advertising, software and data science veterans spent 2017 hard at work.

The team at CompanionLabs (www.companionlabs.com) has created simple, bite-size companion apps. These apps help companies spend their advertising dollars smarter and more efficiently on platforms such as Facebook.

Just nine months after the launch of their first product, CompanionLabs has signed up thousands of advertisers across more than 65 countries. Even Facebook has taken notice, vetting and accrediting the company as a Facebook Marketing Partner in August—a distinction shared with only 190 companies globally.

While CompanionLabs co-founder Brian Deagan embraces the recognition by Facebook, he points out that the CompanionLabs vision is bigger than any one platform.

“Over the next ten years, the majority of advertising dollars are going to flow to three companies—Facebook, Google and Amazon,” said Deagan. “While these companies are nothing short of brilliant in their product development capabilities, there is still a huge gap between where their platforms end and the best practices advertisers need to truly take advantage of them. Our technology closes this gap in an easy, affordable and universal way.”

To that end, this week CompanionLabs announced the release of Predictive Budget Recommendations—building on their software’s existing performance-grading and bidding capabilities.

“Companies advertising on Facebook are often unclear as to how much they can spend on their campaigns and maintain strong performance,” added Deagan. “Now, for a few dollars a day, the CompanionLabs algorithm tells them.”

While CompanionLabs may be a young company, the people behind it have decades of experience helping businesses improve the performance of their advertising dollars through technology. Members of the co-founding team were part of another successful Akron company—Knotice. The marketing technology startup was founded in 2003, received an investment from Cleveland-based venture development organization JumpStart Inc. in 2006 and was acquired in 2014 by New York-based marketing firm IgnitionOne.

JumpStart has now backed this team again with a $250K investment in CompanionLabs from its $10 million Evergreen Fund, which invests seed capital in high-potential companies across the 21 counties of Northeast Ohio. Combined with other funding, CompanionLabs has now raised $500k in capital as part of a larger ongoing seed round.

“Brian Deagan and his team have already demonstrated the ability to build great companies and generate returns for investors,” said Rem Harris, JumpStart’s senior partner in charge of investing. “There are few factors more important than a team’s prior demonstration of its ability to achieve success. The CompanionLabs team has a big vision with a demonstrated track record in this space. For these reasons we are excited to be partnering with Brian and team again.”

“This is a veteran team with a proven ability to lead and scale startups,” added JumpStart Venture Partner Mike Marchetti, who will also be joining CompanionLabs’ board of directors. “Their software helps simplify complicated challenges for advertisers in a rapidly growing market. We are extremely excited about their potential for growth.”

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COMPANIONLABS helps advertisers create performance that sticks. For just dollars a day, businesses can advertise smarter through simple, bite-size companion apps that allow them to make better decisions and more money. For more information visit www.companionlabs.com.