Regina Yeh and Topsort co-founder Francisco Larraín say they've learned a lot in the two years since they launched their auction-based advertising startup.
The company raised $8 million in seed funding in 2022, valuing the company at $110 million. Topsort develops retail media technology that allows small businesses to use auctions as a way to create effective advertising.
Tired of the complexity of creating ad campaigns on Meta, Amazon, and Google, they created a simple API that users can install. When launching a campaign, customers can add items such as sponsored listings, banner ads, and video ads. Then, control how your ads are displayed, how their quality and relevance are measured, and who can launch campaigns.
The founders also recognized that their plug-and-play product resonated with e-commerce markets of various sizes. Topsort is currently used in marketplaces in 35 countries, including by Poshmark and Youtravel.me.
“You don't have to be a rocket scientist to actually get great advertising results,” Ye told TechCrunch. “Since then, we've tried a lot of things and found what works, and the last year has been incredible growth for us. We've grown almost 10x in terms of revenue. We are aiming for a similar scale this year.”
Topsort has also shifted its focus to be more enterprise-oriented and built more advanced features. Its current customers include P&G, General Mills, and Danone.
All this growth excited investors, who poured another $20 million in Series A capital into Topsort, increasing its post-money valuation to $150 million. Upload Ventures led the round with support from existing investors including Quiet Capital and Pear Ventures. The company has now raised a total of $28.6 million.
The company is now focused on what will happen with cookies being phased out. Topsort wants to correct advertising's reputation for being “slimy” when it comes to user privacy. Yeh said he created a clean room feature that combines user data without actually being “creepy.”
“Everyone is wondering what happens to advertising after cookies, and we think we have the answer to a clean advertising solution,” Ye said. “We've spent three years developing a very solid product, and today we can offer probably the most comprehensive product on the market.”