Admix, the in-game advertisement platform, today announced it’s raised $7 million in its series A financing round. The news was first reported by TechCrunch.

Update (June 18th, 2020): It was previously stated that the source of the Series A funding was uncertain, however we’ve since found that out. It’s been fixed in the body of the article.

Admix also left Road to VR this statement in regards to an image used in a previous version of this article:

“We recently used a mockup of Superhot game with an advert in it. We take intellectual property seriously and as Admix is not working with Superhot, this image should not have been used. We apologise for this and the image has now been replaced.”

The original article follows below:

Admix has created a platform that lets developers insert advertisements into their games, something the company says can be done non-intrusively across all device types, AR and VR included.

While putting ads in games is nothing groundbreaking, Admix says it’s co-opting traditional ad-buying techniques. Its platform also allows them to do it at scale thanks to its Unity and Unreal-compatible SDK, which essentially lets game developers forgo popups and other interstitials that may otherwise ruin the gaming experience.

Example image courtesy Admix

The London-based startup’s penultimate funding round brought them $2.1 million in 2018, led by Speedinvest and Sure Valley Venture, Crunchbase says.

The company’s Series A was lead by investment firm Force Over Mass, with participation by Speedinvest, Sure Valley Ventures and angel investors including former Dentsu Aegis exec Nigel Morris.

“The concept of putting ads in games is obviously not new, but the scalability of our solution is what is revolutionary, delivering instant and consistent revenue to game makers, or streaming platforms,” Huber said in a statement obtained by TechCrunch. “This coupled with the fact that 1.5B people play games globally every day, means that gaming is becoming a truly mainstream advertising channel.”

SEE ALSO
Meta Pushes Back on Reported Outsourcing of XR Headset Designs

In the realm of VR headsets, Admix also says it uses gaze tracking to verify how ads are consumed, something that’s bound to change once a majority of VR headsets include eye-tracking. Most today don’t, which is why companies like Admix can only tell the general direction you’re facing.

The company already counts 5,000 advertisers among its ranks using the platform.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Blake DeVoss

    “non-intrusive”? That Superhot mockup is borderline offensive.

    • aasdfa

      lol i really hope youre not related to betsy devos……

      • Blake DeVoss

        Definitely not. I share that sentiment.

    • Sven Viking

      I assumed it was a parody image created for the article before reading the text.

    • Aaftorn

      it could be more intrusive with pop-ups and such so they call it non-intrusive
      a sad world to live in where the advertisers think they are the good guys for not annoying the hell out of everyone this time
      but then it will not be enough to grab our attention and they’ll introduce more intrusive ones silently (or with annoying music…)

      • sony2

        How can devs make money then?

        • brubble

          …by making a SOLID GAME.

  • Ad

    Hard no. Advertising is a nightmare industry that hollows out every aspect of life and it needs to be kept away from AR and VR, where it could be a catastrophic mess. At every step of their BS there will be endless hackers, angry consumers, and people who don’t want a colonized reality who will fight back.

    This is disgusting.

    • asdf

      it is but its inevitable really. not worth getting angry over because there really is nothing that can be done to stop it.

      • dialmove

        Ad blocks make wonders for the web. Let’s hope ad publishers learn the lesson from the web and the ad businesses gives so low benefits that it doesn’t pay to build the technology to infest VR with ads to begin with.

        • Jackson Rodriguez

          Especially with things like Pihole which makes universal adblocking on every single device on your network

          • Ad

            I loved how LTT did an explainer on that. I’m going to make one.

      • Ad

        Why? People said the same thing about regular games and it didn’t take off. Also why is it legitimate anyway? There are other monetization schema available, this isn’t some required thing to have VR games or online spaces.

    • Sven Viking

      … Relevant username?

  • anonmon

    Thank goodness things like Pihole exist, and I’m sure if this sort of thing were to really catch on then having adblockers for more than just browsers on a OS level would absolutely proliferate.

  • ale bro

    I find it hard to believe that Superhot and MacDonalds are happy with that monstrosity.

  • sfmike

    Bloody Hell No!

  • ocass66

    i hope whoever invented this goes bankrupt

    • Tryst46

      I hope whatever game company supports this goes bankrupt.

      • Aaftorn

        nah, they’ll probably make more money they could’ve imagined before, from advertisements and from selling ad-free monthly subscriptions :(

  • Jack Liddon

    No thanks

  • kajar9

    VR and Games are my retreat from the constant barrage of super deeply personalized advertisements targeting my every desire while being basically too broke to afford most of them anyway…

    Please don’t take the only digital safehaven I have from me that is my refuge from such predators of privacy invasion disguised as marketing people.

  • Pokemonactor

    I’ve be less likely to buy a VR game if there was ads in it. This is bullshit

  • Tryst46

    I take it “the thing you want when you order salad” is to shoot the guy behind the counter for giving you a burger.

    • guest

      This is obviously going to make more serial-killers out there that are going to confuse the real world with their sick fantasy worlds where they shoot anybody that looks alien or disabled!

  • Jonathan Winters III

    yuk! “Non-intrusive”? Those screenshots are massively intrusive, especially the Foot Locker and McDonalds ones. Not to mention the users metrics tracking. Totally understand the business/profit psychology, but please, for the love of god, NO!

  • CannonKnight

    I feel 100% safe and not violated that a third-party company is tracking my eyes for advertisers. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

  • brubble

    Yikes! WTF is this dogsh*t all about? “Non-intrusive” Pfft…ANY ads are intrusive. Period.

    Absolutely nothing would prevent me from purchasing a game or adopt a platform more than this. I would be 100% OUT. Jesus.

  • ShaneMcGrath

    Not buying any VR games with ads in them, I guess it won’t bother me.

  • Adrian C Black

    Put the actual product in the game, not a f…ing Ad. Like this the devs win, the consumer win, the product advertised wins … and I just figured it out … the advertising agency makes no money … so, scratch that … I guess we’ll have billboards (which by the way, will be very ease to remove at runtime … but don’t tell them that ;)