As bots and fraudulent traffic across digital advertising continues to increase and drain marketing budgets, Lunio’s platform helps digital marketers ensure their ads are served only to relevant audiences

MANCHESTER, UK – Sep. 29, 2022 –  Lunio, the leading digital ad protection solution against fake users and malicious bots, today announced the closing of a $15 million Series A funding. The company helps marketers maximize their advertising budgets by identifying and excluding fake, non-human, and zero-value traffic coming from different acquisition channels. By preventing fraud at the source through analysis of traffic and user behavior patterns, Lunio gives advertisers clearer and more accurate insights that save money and improve campaign efficacy.

The latest funding round, led by London and Stavanger-based venture capital fund Smedvig Capital, also included participation from senior leaders in the advertising-technology space from companies including Google and Warner.

Fake and fraudulent ad traffic is an infamous problem across the digital advertising space, with global losses from ad fraud totaling $35 billion in 2020 alone. Invalid traffic inflates advertising performance measurements, resulting in the misidentification of customers and inaccurate marketing insights. With digital advertising spending expected to reach $1 trillion by 2025, and with 36% of display ad clicks deemed fraudulent and invalid per Lunio data, the scale of wasted spend is projected to rise further, harming traffic acquisition efforts and resulting in poor advertising performance.

To help marketers defeat invalid web traffic and gain more control over their campaign budgets, Lunio uses a combination of data analysis and cybersecurity techniques to catch and block fake clicks at the source. The platform provides coverage for more than 15 ad networks including Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Bing, Yandex, TikTok, and Snapchat, with support for non-paid and affiliate channels coming soon.

Customers using Lunio gain a clearer understanding of who is interacting with advertisements  on key traffic acquisition channels. By preventing activity from bots, unwanted traffic sources, fraud and malicious publishers, marketers can save money and reinvest it back into their top-performing ad campaigns. 

Lunio already protects the ad spend of several Fortune 1000 companies running multinational ad campaigns, saving them thousands every month. 

“To have raised the largest Series A round in the digital ad fraud space to date is a strong validation of the fraud prevention platform we have developed and its success,” said Neil Andrew, CEO and Founder of Lunio. “This funding allows us to open up significant opportunities for Lunio to gain market share and scale.”

Smedvig Capital Partner Joe Knowles adds, “Lunio is quickly becoming a leading player in the business-critical digital ad fraud space. We were extremely impressed with the rapid growth the Lunio team has achieved and in particular the outstanding capital efficiency the business has displayed during this growth phase. We are very excited to work with Neil, Segev, Alex and the wider Lunio team on their journey moving forwards.”

The funds raised will help Lunio accelerate the development of its technology while supporting further expansion into the EMEA and North American markets.

About Lunio

Founded in 2016, Lunio a SaaS solution to help marketers regain control over their digital advertising budgets. By using a combination of big data and cybersecurity best practices to identify and block fraudulent and invalid traffic at the source, Lunio helps clients improve their return on ad spend across digital channels. Between greater accuracy and insights, Lunio ensures thousands of leading brands prevent click fraud across over 15 acquisition channels, including popular advertising networks and social media platforms.