Brands and marketers are always looking for new and innovative ways to reach target audiences. The convergence of technology and mobility solutions like rideshares has enabled a new wave of ad units. For example, taxis for several years have had ads in cars and on top of vehicles, which now have become digitized from analog. This LA startup takes it one step further. Adway is a digital advertising platform that uses proprietary projection technology to display ads on the side of any vehicle without any major modifications. The projectors are affixed to a vehicle’s mirrors and ad buyers can purchase slots based on geography in real-time, enabling sophisticated targeting. The platform also tracks the number of cellular devices in and around the vehicles through Bluetooth to provide measured reach metrics. Adway drivers are given a share of the advertising revenue based on the number of hours they drive.
LA TechWatch caught up with CEO Sasha Krylov to learn more about how the idea for the business came to fruition, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Adway received $6M in Seed funding, led by investment firm Upfront Ventures and others including Revel Partners, Watertower Ventures, Inflection Capital, and more.
Tell us about your product or service.
Based in Los Angeles, Adway is a digital advertising network providing brands with a new hyper-targeted way to engage and attract consumers by reimagining street-level media. Its patented projection-based technology displays both static and full HD video on the sides of vehicles, redefining how the public experiences and interacts with media in the realm of transportation, retail, and more.
What inspired the start of Adway?
The inspiration came from a so-called “puddle-lamp” — a simple light source built into a side-view mirror that projects a logo onto the ground. One can typically find them in a Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, etc. My wife pointed it out to me thinking the light was trying to communicate a message. Obviously, it was not, but I thought to myself, “huh, but what if it was trying to communicate something meaningful?”
How is it different?
Adway’s technology offers an alternative to traditional LED taxi toppers with three unique advantages:
- Unparalleled hardware flexibility: Adway’s devices are designed to be attached and detached from the side-view mirrors within seconds.
- Device size and position: The miniature device on the body of a car expands the possible fleet size by including previously excluded car types (SUVs, vans, etc.).
- Creative ad opportunity: Adway’s “off-axis ultra-short-throw optical system” coupled with its projecting technology allows seamless display and elegant static and motion content that appears fully integrated into the doors of the affiliated vehicles in HD. This provides brand new creative opportunities that can render the displays as more volumetric and captivating.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
We believe that Adway’s addressable market really exists at the intersection of three large media segments:
- Digital advertisement – represented by online advertisement
- Traditional OOH, which has taken a hit during Covid but is expected to double in the next three years
- Location-based advertisement, which is similar to applications such as Waze
The intersection or SAM of these segments combined is roughly a $30B market opportunity.
Advertisers including Cisco/Webex, Sweetfin, Rip Curl, Sandland, Sky Zone, and ROW 8 have benefitted by using Adway’s platform to target specific locations with specific messaging that can change by geography. By supporting eye-catching imagery and video, Adway literally drives awareness for advertisers’ locations, products and more. Adway has been proven to not only increase brand awareness but drive foot traffic to physical locations for advertisers.
What’s your business model?
Adway utilizes its network of smart displays installed on any vehicle to create powerful and engaging media messages that can target very specific locations. While displaying digital content, Adway’s devices count surrounding impressions in real-time using proprietary Bluetooth sniffing technology, which identifies the number of active cellular devices within a vehicles’ proximity and tracks unique Bluetooth identifiers.
Being “virtually conscious” of their physical surroundings and using numerous sensors, Adway’s devices collect and transmit data to the client’s dashboard in real-time. This allows advertisers to see their campaign performance and data as it is being collected, so they can better control their spend and targeting in a much more granular way.
Additionally, with Adway’s optical system, drivers can earn passive income by displaying brand logos, ads, and other graphics on the sides of vehicles via projections, eliminating the need to permanently change their exteriors. Drivers simply download the Adway driver app, which monitors their performance, facilitates payouts, and offers en-route support.
Adway does not collect individuals’ media access control (MAC) addresses, browser activity, cookies, etc. It is strictly a one-way communication that is totally anonymous and simply counts devices to inform advertisers how many people were exposed to an ad.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business??
As many manufacturers can attest to, COVID-19 helped fuel a semiconductor shortage that will likely persist even throughout next year. This presented a unique challenge for Adway, as our technology relies on those same semiconductors – but it was not something that we could let sideline us. Instead, we sought semiconductors from unconventional sources, optimized our technology, replaced many unavailable items with the available ones, and essentially learned to adapt to an issue that has hit everyone from car manufacturers to mobile phone conglomerates.
What was the funding process like?
Our team did not rush into the venture capital fundraise. Instead, we bootstrapped for as long as we could to push the technology development to the point at which it would have been impossible to improve it further. After months of hard work and moonlighting, the team was fortunate to be introduced to–and then supported by– some of the best VC firms in the US, who recognized the size of the market opportunity, technology’s uniqueness and protectability, as well as the team’s tenacity. None of this would have happened without the early support from Glenn Argenbright, Chris Young, John Hadl, Mark Suster, and others.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Trying to predict the future is the single most ungrateful and frustrating task. Defining and developing a method to prove one’s vision and its validity with intermediate results in the circumstances of an unpredictable world, and then persuading investors that despite the odds we could persevere and learn from the inevitable mistakes was a full-time job for someone crazy enough (i.e. a startup founder) to ignore the pushback and still keep moving ahead.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
It would be too presumptuous to put words into our investors’ mouths, but we humbly believe that our vision, uniqueness, and track record led them to believe that Adway’s team had the capability to execute and build something successful.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Adway’s new batch of devices (delayed due to pandemic) will be deployed in Los Angeles before the end of Q3, 2021. Also, Adway’s 4th generation hardware is slated to launch in Q4, 2021. Brighter, lighter, and with a bigger, full HD display resolution, this new iteration will be more eye-catching and engaging to consumers.
Adway’s new batch of devices (delayed due to pandemic) will be deployed in Los Angeles before the end of Q3, 2021. Also, Adway’s 4th generation hardware is slated to launch in Q4, 2021. Brighter, lighter, and with a bigger, full HD display resolution, this new iteration will be more eye-catching and engaging to consumers.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Every “no” gets you one step closer to a “yes”. A.k.a. “Never stop raising”.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Today Adway’s advertising network operates in Southern California but the company is planning an expansion to other domestic markets by 2022, and maybe even beyond.
What’s your favorite outdoor activity in LA?
I enjoy taking my daughter on long stroller walks! Also: hikes, volleyball, soccer, golf.
