Eric Schmidt. 'Not involved in company'
Photo: Reuters
Ex-Google CEO's Israeli startup
Eric Schmidt's venture capital fund is one of investors in Eyeview, which has developed technology enabling companies to adjust ads to specific target audience
The venture capital fund of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is one of the investors in Israeli startup company Eyeview.
The technology developed by the company allows other companies and marketers personally adapt their commercials to a specific target audience in real time, for example in accordance with the viewer's geographical location.
The development enables adapting online commercials to a specific target audience, and Oren Har Nevo, the company's CEO and co-founder, confirmed that Schmidt gave the company about $1 million, which in addition to other investments of funds like Gemini and Lightspeed bring the total investment in the company to $6 million.
Whiz Kid
Ronny Shani
After developing new search engine, 19-year-old Daniel Gross manages to raise $4 million for his start-up. 'I want our website to compete against Google,' he says
Thus, in ads for a newly released film, a viewer in New York will be directed to the closest movie theater to his or her home – and a viewer in Los Angeles will be directed to different cinema.
In another commercial which used the company's technology, the weather forecast changes according to where the commercial is broadcast. Other advertisements are processed differently when presented to students, families or businesspeople.
"I studied computer science and cinema, and I wanted to do something combining the two," says Har Nevo. "Although we don't create the commercial, through our technology there are all kinds of elements in the commercial, for example the animation, which can be changed and manipulated according to the target audience."
Technology irrelevant in Israel
The company was co-founded by Har Nevo, Tal Riesenfeld and Gal Barnea and is based in New York, although its R&D center is in Tel Aviv.
Har Nevo explains, regretfully, that the technology he and his friends developed is kind of irrelevant in Israel.
"I would love to enter the Israeli market, but there are very few types of audiences here as far as we're concerned, and it's very difficult to understand which geographical location each person comes from, because it a very small country. American chain Target has 2,500 stores and it's important to adjust the commercial to the viewer's location. Here there's barely one IKEA branch."
He says Schmidt invested in the company, but is not involved in it. "The truth is that it's good for us. We work with many companies which compete against Google, and it's better for us if Schmidt remains an investor and not a strategic advisor."
- Follow Ynetnews on Facebook
