ClearTrust, a new-age ad tracking and fraud detection platform, raised $1.9 million in its pre-Series A funding round. Ideaspring Capital led the round, and Piper Serica Angel Fund participated, along with existing supporter Alacrity India.
The startup raised $200,000 in a seed round in 2021 from Alacrity India, Limelight UK, and ThinkNext LLC.
The new funding will support ClearTrust in expanding its operations into North America and investing in research and development. The focus areas include AI, cybersecurity, and deep tech to create essential filters for detecting advertising fraud.
Founded in 2020 by Deepankar Biswas and Raja TN, ClearTrust offers a cutting-edge tracking and fraud detection platform, assisting advertising operations, media buying companies, and teams globally.
ClearTrust helps advertisers, agencies, and networks boost their digital campaign ROI by eliminating fraudulent and fake activities. It also helps digital publishers safeguard their ad revenues from fake and invalid real-time traffic.
Deepankar Biswas, co-founder and CEO of ClearTrust, who has extensive experience in media buying and the internet, said, “With a keen focus on expanding into the US market, this funding propels us towards innovating and implementing solutions that ensure the integrity and efficiency of online advertising.”
Raja TN, co-founder and CTO of ClearTrust, added, “The rapid growth of ad inventory and outpacing demand has made digital advertising a breeding ground for fraudsters to exploit unsuspecting brands.”
The platform provides security solutions such as traffic scanning, precise tracking, and a real-time dashboard featuring over 140 traffic scoring filters, system alerts, and customer-centric features.
The startup has experienced three-fold annual growth for the last two years and targets achieving a yearly revenue of $10 million (approximately Rs 83 crore) by 2027.
On funding, Ideaspring Capital managing partner, Naganand Doraswamy, said, “Ideaspring Capital is excited to partner with Deepankar and Raja, Co-Founders of ClearTrust. As digital ad formats evolve and more ads are trading programmatically, fraud detection processes are becoming complex. This results in 23 per cent of all advertising spend being lost to fraud, estimated to reach $170 billion by 2028. Cleartrust’s real-time, scalable cybersecurity platform will mitigate this risk. The platform works towards increasing revenue-generating traffic for advertisers, publishers, and ad networks.”
Abhay Agarwal, founder of Piper Serica Angel Fund, said, “We expect the company to be a global player in the next 2-3 years, helping large multinational companies run safe advertising and digital campaigns profitably and with increased ROI.”
