Prophet raises $5 million for its cookie-free martech platform

Marketing tech startup Prophet has secured $5 million in seed funding from top-tier Australian media and advertising magnates Antony Catalano of Australian Community Media and Matt Rockman, co-founder of Seek.

Launched in 2020 by digital marketing professionals Jordan Taylor-Bartels and Sean Taylor, Prophet says it is committed to enabling precise consumer targeting without the conventional reliance on invasive tracking cookies.

As first reported in the Australian Financial Review (AFR), Prophet’s development has largely flown under the radar, with its founders rigorously testing the technology with a select group of early clients ahead of its public unveiling.

The platform has captured attention not just for its timely relevance but also for its unique approach to tackling the evolving digital advertising landscape. With Google’s upcoming ban on third-party cookies — which has been in the works since early 2020 — Prophet’s technology, which utilises advanced mathematics and predictive intelligence, offers a forward-looking solution for medium to large companies reevaluating their digital advertising strategies.

“We’ve packaged the world’s most sophisticated mathematics and data analysis into a living, breathing platform that any brand decision-maker can use to optimise every brand dollar, without having to be tech-savvy,” Taylor-Bartels said.

“Our testing to date has demonstrated Prophet can save businesses anywhere from 10 to 50% on marketing and ad spend by accurately demonstrating what’s working, and where budgets should be diverted for maximum impact. There’s clearly an appetite for this breakthrough, too; raising $5 million for a new platform in this market is hard at the best of times, and we’ve managed to achieve that pre-revenue.”

The startup’s product leverages thousands of macroeconomic data points to help organisations assess and predict the ROI of their marketing efforts, providing a nimble response mechanism to market shifts without relying on the now-contested cookie-based tracking methods.

“Consumer sentiment and spending power is low, inflation is high, and Google’s 2024 sunsetting of third-party cookies has made it much harder to measure return on investment,” Taylor-Bartels said.

“Meanwhile, marketers are using market-mix-modeling tech based on the same mathematical models used to predict the weather. Prophet gives them the ability to unearth subtle trends that previously would have been missed.”

VC firms are notably absent from the funding round but does include contributions from Cheuk Chiang, the former chief executive of Dentsu. Taylor-Bartels confirmed to the AFR that the capital injection was acquired without relinquishing significant equity.

According to Taylor-Bartels, the fresh capital injection will help grow the Prophet team beyond its ten current employees, which are largely made up of data scientists and mathematicians.