This startup uses sound waves to help advertisers target people – and it just got funded

Malaysia-based VAV secures over US$550,000 from Axiata Digital Innovation Fund

Malaysia-based VAV secures over US$550,000 from Axiata Digital Innovation Fund. PHOTO: VAV

Malaysian sound tech firm VAV today announced it bagged US$557,000 in funding from Axiata Digital Innovation Fund, which is managed by Intres Capital Partners.

It will use the money to commercially roll out its sound wave-based solutions in Malaysia, and expand to other markets such as China.

The startup uses inaudible sound waves to transmit actionable messages to smartphones, which it bills as a new way for businesses to engage consumers. The sound waves travel through audio-visual content coming from any form of media, including TV, radio, websites, Facebook, and YouTube.

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For example, a broadcasting company can embed VAV’s audio signal into their program to send a notification to viewers’ smartphones about a promotion or contest during airtime. The phones have to be installed with the broadcasting company’s VAV-enabled app or any enabled third-party app.

“This timely injection of funds will allow VAV to fast-track and gear up the marketing of the VAV solutions to more media companies to help them enhance their advertising campaigns,” says executive chairman Wan Kamarul Zaman Wan Yaacob.

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“Through VAV applications, businesses will be able to optimize their campaigns as well as to be able to track campaign results and measure their impacts on a real-time basis,” he continues.

Yet it’s not limited to advertising. Co-founder Alden Leong Qi Wen says broadcasting companies can use VAV to make a “second screen experience” for its viewers. “This means the broadcaster can send any message to the viewer about things other than advertising like a disaster happening somewhere. The broadcaster is the one that determines how the viewers can receive the content – whether through their own VAV-enabled app or through any third-party app that they allow to transmit their content.”

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VAV makes money in two ways: through licensing fees from clients who use its sound tech, and profit-sharing where it takes a cut of revenues from ad placements in VAV notifications.

Alden says they landed their first paying enterprise customer last year.

Prior to Axiata’s investment, the company secured around US$111,000 from Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera, and another US$111,000 from Malaysia’s Cradle Fund.

Converted from Malaysian ringgit. US$1 = RM 4.49.

This article originally appeared on Tech in Asia
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