- Smart media platform company Firefly announced it raised $30 million in Series A funding led by GV and bought the digital operations of STRONG Outdoor.
- GV led this round of funding with participation from NFX
- Firefly has now raised a total of $51.5 million
Firefly, a company that works with taxi companies and ride-sharing drivers for installing proprietary advertising displays atop vehicles, announced it has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by GV (formerly Google Ventures) with participation from NFX. Plus Firefly also announced it acquired the digital operations of STRONG Outdoor, which marks the company’s expansion to New York City. Including this round of funding, Firefly has raised a total of $51.5 million.
Launched by Kaan Gunay (CEO) and Onur Kardesler (CTO) out of stealth mode in December 2018, Firefly signed notable brands like Brex, Segment, Caviar, and Zumper for quickly adopting its proprietary vehicle-mounted media platform for driving campaign results. Firefly’s ‘situationally aware’ digital smart screens are able to determine campaign direction and ad frequency based on driver routes, area demographics and traffic patterns. And according to a recent Firefly measurement study, individuals who saw Firefly Brex creatives were twice as likely to visit Brex’s websites than people who did not see the ads.
“We believe that all full-time drivers in New York, taxi and rideshare, should be able to make a living wage and support their families,” said Firefly co-founder and CEO Kaan Gunay. “By combining our Firefly operating system with STRONG’s existing digital network, we’re able to immediately scale upon market entry so we can support the New York community with no downtime.”
With this new round of funding, it will fuel Firefly’s growth and support expansion to more communities. Plus it will drive continued innovation in digital displays. And by acquiring STRONG’s digital operations in New York City, Firefly secured ownership of the company’s digital taxi top advertising deal with the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade (MTBOT).
“Firefly is creating a significant new ad format at scale,” added GV general partner H. Adam Ghobarah. “In addition to taxis, the scale of rideshare networks has created a large opportunity to provide digital out of home advertising with granular city-block and time targeting. Kaan, Onur and the Firefly team have executed very well so far, and are motivated by the long-term mission of enabling cities with data.”
Firefly’s approach has been a big win for cities, brands, and citizens. As the company delivering highly effective advertising campaigns with geo-targeted technology, Firefly also helps boost income for taxi drivers, ride-sharing drivers, and last-mile delivery drivers in the gig economy. Plus with a community-driven approach, Firefly can support an industry that has been long struggling with increased market saturation and wage stagnation.
Plus Firefly works hand-in-hand with municipal governments to guarantee its platform generates positive social impact. And Firefly participates in the AMBER alert system and supports the Ad Council by running PSAs pro bono in California with plans for extending to New York. A minimum of 10% of inventory is also devoted to other community-driven partners like local businesses and local government entities. According to Forbes, ride-hailing drivers make an average of about $300 a month extra to drive with a Firefly billboard.
“We are excited about the potential for growth in digital advertising and we believe that Firefly, led by CEO Kaan Gunay, is the right team and platform to combine with our digital platform in New York City. We look forward to being significant shareholders in Firefly and benefiting from the growth in digital at Firefly while maintaining our significant market presence in non-digital advertising at STRONG,” explained Kyle Cerminara — who is the CEO of Fundamental Global and Chairman of STRONG Outdoor.
