Nodals AI, a media buying platform that enables digital advertisers to use first-party datasets, has raised £2M in pre-seed funding.
The London-headquartered company said the tool uses agents – AI that can work autonomously – to enable advertisers to gain access to first-party data from media owners.
The tech company also said it does this whilst protecting consumer privacy and reducing carbon emissions by 75 percent.
“AI-powered agents automate workflows, providing real-time recommendations on what’s working and what’s not – allowing buyers to make informed decisions while maintaining full control,” said co-founder Aly Nurmohamed.
“By increasing the availability of high-impact signals, identifying which creatives perform best, and delivering actionable insights, we ensure advertisers can optimise campaigns efficiently”.
The pre-seed investment round was led by VC firm Stride.VC, US-based adtech company Aperiam, and angel investor Brian O’Kelley, CEO and co-founder of Scope3.
Founder of Stride.VC, Fred Destin, said one of the main reasons for his investment is his belief the company is addressing an industry-wide problem. He said: “Nodals features a full team of adtech insiders attacking the biggest issue in the industry right now – audience-based targeting.”
Nodals AI was founded by Aly Nurmohamed, an early employee at Criteo and former COO at Permutive, James Phipps, who has led sales teams at Amazon Advertising and AOL, and Ed Barnes, Sam Adu, and Octavio Martin, who have built advertising infrastructure at Doubleclick, Google, and Yahoo.
The team will soon be joined in an advisory role by Kumar Amrendra, Head of Digital Marketing, Planning, and Data Science at Sky. He said: “The value of media owners’ first-party data has long been recognised, but AI-driven innovation is now transforming how advertisers can securely and sustainably access and activate high-quality data.
The company said the investment will go towards product development, headcount expansion, and building partnerships with media owners and advertisers.