Camera IQ, the LA-based startup that provides augmented reality platform for camera marketing, announced an additional $5 million in Series A funding led by Shasta Ventures. The round also includes participation from existing investors Waverly Capital, Betaworks Ventures, Sway Ventures, as well as new investors Grand Ventures, Space Capital, and Gingerbread Capital. Till now, the company raised a total of $14 million in funding.
Camera IQ’s newly launched platform enables brand marketers to drive business objectives while easily creating, managing and measuring scalable augmented reality (AR) campaigns that reach audiences across social media and streaming platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, Zoom and more.
“For beauty brands building e-commerce businesses, AR and virtual try-on are essential to providing the user experience to incentivize purchases,” said Elaine Chen, Vice President of Brand Marketing and Innovation at wet n wild Beauty/Markwins. “In our latest campaign with Camera IQ, we included two AR experiences to promote the highly-anticipated launch of our Sanrio collaboration featuring My Melody and Kuromi, giving users the ability to visualize themselves as the cult characters while wearing the products from our collection. With virtual try-on, Camera IQ enabled us to not only build authentic brand affinity but also drive real business ROI. The My Melody experience saw a 47.4% play rate, and the Kuromi experience saw a 63.8% play rate, generating excitement and amplifying exposure for the collection which has largely sold-out online.”
In 2020, Camera IQ customers have seen a record number of AR experiences reach in excess of one million views. AR share rates on Instagram and Facebook have increased 43% and 23% respectively in Q2, and Snap Camera usage (which powers AR in Twitch, Zoom and Google Hangouts) has increased 33x since the start of the year.
“With the Camera and AR playing essential roles in our daily lives now, AR is the strongest format for driving consumer engagement and making business goals a reality,” said Allison Ferenci, Co-founder and CEO of Camera IQ. “Our platform enables brands and businesses to power the next generation of consumer engagement and gives them the tools to have more interactive, engaging targeted connections with customers. We are thrilled to partner with Shasta and our other investors to expand to new platforms and reach new industries.”
The funds will be used to make key hires in sales and marketing, as well as on product development with an emphasis on expanding distribution to new platforms to further its mission to democratize the camera and AR technology for brands across the globe.
“When I met with Camera IQ’s co-founders, Allison Ferenci and Sonia Tsao in 2016, they painted a picture of the key role that the camera would play in our daily lives,” said Jacob Mullins, Partner at Shasta Ventures. “Since then, they have continuously delivered and are now the category leaders for Camera Marketing, becoming a trusted partner to leading brands in the music, beauty, media, and gaming industries.”
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