Retail Search Startup Symbiosys Raises $9 Million For Its ‘Collaborative Bidding’ Model
Summary
The approach allows for increased sharing of budget costs and KPIs between a retailer and product brand.This week, Symbiosys announced the close of a $9 million Series A round led by the VC firm Fuse, with participation from individual investors, including Jonathan Opdyke, co-founder and CEO of HookLogic, which was acquired by Criteo in 2016, and Patrick Miller, co-founder and president of Flywheel Digital, itself snapped up by Omnicom for a cool $835 million in October.Symbiosys comes with a pedigree on the demand side.But getting advertisers is the easy part.The first step is always getting the retailer on board, founder and CEO Bashar Kachachi told AdExchanger.There are pros and cons to the position symbiosys has staked for itself within the retailers ad tech system.On the plus side, its whitelisted, which retailers prefer since its presents a a clean in-house campaign. Agency buyers prefer it, too, because the software isnt claiming credit for sales to the brand.Were a very behind-the-scenes type of technology partner, Kachachi said.On the other hand, Symbiosys is limited by how fast retailers themselves can increase their sophistication and investments in online ad businesses. In addition to generating site traffic, Best Buy may know that, say, speaker product research searches lead to disproportionately large baskets or sign-ups to its credit card program.The value and rationale can be very different for a retailer versus a brand, but the impetus is the same.And the contribution and the bidding mechanics should be based on each partys respective goals and what theyre getting out of it, Kachachi said.Symbiosys has between 20 and 30 full-time employees, but plans to expand with the new funding.The company will remain focused on search and social. Both are massive channels, yet retailers havent been able to support brands through collaborative bidding structures in search and social previously. Procter & Gamble, for instance, doesnt have a massive identity graph it can match to web audiences but retailers do.