Gravity raises $30.5 million Series A to expand AI chatbot advertising platform

Adtech startup Gravity raised $30.5 million in a Series A round co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Committed Capital, bringing its total funding to $38.5 million. Gravity operates a full-stack ad platform that places text-based ads inside ChatGPT and other AI assistants for clients like Best Buy and Target. The company is also testing an "agent-to-agent" product targeting AI shopping bots. Gravity aims to capture a share of an emerging AI ad market that WPP Media projects will reach $100 billion by 2030.

Gravity Series A funding round

• ▪The adtech startup Gravity raised a $30.5 million Series A funding round co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Committed Capital.
• ▪Gravity's seed funding round was led by Caffeinated Capital, with participation from Basis Set, Haystack VC, and Logos Fund.
• ▪The $30.5 million Series A funding round brings Gravity's total funding to $38.5 million.

AI chatbot advertising platform

• ▪Gravity's advertiser clients have included Best Buy, Target, Vercel, and MongoDB.
• ▪Gravity places text-based advertisements inside AI chatbots and assistants, including ChatGPT, Codebuff, EcoGPT, Daimon, Magneta, Runable, and CTO.new.
• ▪Gravity operates a full-stack ad platform consisting of a demand-side platform, a supply-side platform, and an exchange.

Agent-to-agent advertising product

• ▪Gravity plans to integrate direct payment solutions to allow AI agents to complete purchases once a human user approves.
• ▪Gravity is testing an agent-to-agent advertising product that targets AI shopping agents directly and is invisible to human users.

AI ad market projections

• ▪OpenAI has forecast that its own advertising business will reach $100 billion by the year 2030.
• ▪WPP Media estimates that global marketer spending on advertisements within generative AI search will reach $100 billion by 2030.
• ▪Gravity cofounder Zach Oldham stated that OpenAI's $100 billion ad business projection for 2030 is conservative.

Gravity competitive differentiation

• ▪Gravity aims to differentiate itself from competitors by owning the full ad stack and working across multiple AI platforms.
• ▪Gravity competes in the AI advertising space against Google and OpenAI, which is building its own ad platform with Adobe, StackAdapt, and Criteo.

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