We are excited to announce a new investment in Kahoona, alongside top-notch global VCs and prominent angel investors from Amazon, IronSource, NBC Universal, Verizon and SAP. Kahoona is building a first-party data generation and activation platform for the open web, anticipating the tectonic change towards a cookieless and identity-less digital ecosystem.

The importance of consumer privacy is soaring. With data protection regulations, brands need to find a unified approach to consent-driven data. Digital publishers, consumer brands and eCommerce merchants are moving towards a first-party data world, where marketers use data that comes with consumers’ consent, to track users across different touchpoints. According to Google, the use of first-party data can benefit brands to build direct relationships with their customers and boost their advertising performance. Research from BCG and Google shows that those who use first-party data for key marketing functions achieved up to 2.9x revenue uplift and a 1.5x increase in cost-saving.

Foreseeing the imminent need for first-party data use, we are thrilled to back Kahoona in their exciting journey. Kahoona is building an AI solution that can understand users by analyzing micro-interactions with websites and apps, allowing brands to understand deep behavioral data insights, contextualization and demographics. This enables brands to transform insights into audience segmentation data and actionable personalization for content and products, increasing user monetization and conversion KPIs.

Kahoona is currently live with the largest consortium of top Israeli news publishers giving them access to 90% of the country’s online users. The San Diego/Tel Aviv-based startup is growing and launching partnerships in the US. Check out their career page for new opportunities!

The team behind Kahoona

When we first met Kahoona, we immediately knew that the solution would be a game-changer for the industry. MIT and Technion graduates, Kahoona has a cohesive team of founders combining expertise in technology, partnerships and sales both in startup and corporate environments. Gal & Alon, long-time friends and partners from the Technion have partnered with the serial business builder and Ex-Googler Ohad, bringing a wealth of technical experience in Big Data, AI and SW development, combined with online publishing and eCommerce expertise. The three founders’ goal is to bridge the gap between users’ right to privacy and businesses' data-driven decision-making in a soon-to-be cookieless ecosystem. Their vision is to promote a healthy and sustainable ecosystem for businesses and users alike in light of the paradigm shift in the digital world.