Now we’reeyeing all of Europe, says AEOS Founder Marin Ćurković

One thing I can’t help but notice since we last spoke in 2021 is the new name of your company. Why is itnow All Eyes on Screens, or AEOS for short?
When we started out as AdScanner, the name reflected what we were doingback then. But a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. It’s nolonger just about visually scanning ads; we now process a wide range of viewerdata for multiple purposes. We work with content that consumers engage withthrough their eyes across an increasing number of screens. So the new name is amuch better fit for what we are doing – capturing users wherever they arewatching any sort of content. We wanted to break free from the limitations ofthe old name, and being easier to find online doesn’t hurt either.

You’restill running the company with your brother – no falling out or going yourseparate ways?
Not at all. We’re still brothers and we’re still inbusiness together. It’s one of our greatest strengths because we have a strongbond, but we’re also very different people, and the geographical distancebetween us helps too. Kristian looks after the operational side from Croatia,while I handle business development from Germany, and it works brilliantly.

Howhas your product and business model evolved over the past few years?
In 2021, our main goal was to get our product upand running in a major, mature market like Germany. We had fresh investment, apartnership with Vodafone, and we needed to make a name for ourselves – and wedid, with revenues growing several-fold. Back then, our product was essentiallydashboard data. Now, we offer a lot of automation and AI-driven planning. WithAdScanner, you basically logged in to look at data; now, our tool optimizescampaigns for you, and it does a better job than a human. Most of our revenuecomes from automation.

Whatabout new markets?
We’ve gradually expanded across Europe, addingAustria, recently launching in Switzerland, and we’re working hard on severalother markets in the European Union, mainly in the west and north. We’re wellalong the way in negotiations and preparations. But we remain active in Croatiaand Bulgaria, which serve as excellent test markets for us.

Havewell-financed American competitors like iSpot.tv and Samba TV made any seriousmoves into Europe?
It’s been a few years now, and they still haven’tmade a significant impact here. I guess you could say, “Thank God for GDPR!”It’s a huge barrier to entry, but we've overcome it ourselves. European privacyregulations are strict, whereas companies from the US or Asia often take a morepragmatic approach. It’s a different world, and that’s reflected in ourproducts too. I wouldn’t even call us direct competitors. And with Apollo, ourAI-powered planning and optimization tool, we’ve moved even further away fromwhat they are doing. There’s sure to be some market consolidation over time,but I think there is room for several big players to work side by side.

Istelevision still at the heart of your product?
Absolutely, and it will remain so. But when we saytelevision, we mean the big screen, whether it’s broadcast linear TV orNetflix. Video ads on big screens are the most impactful and the most expensive.No one talks about a campaign they saw on a banner on their mobile phone. TVscreens will continue to dominate because that’s where advertisers spend theirbudgets. Take L’Oréal in Germany, for instance. They spend a million euros aday on TV ads. With us, they increase their efficiency by 5% to 15%, which is alot of money.

So,you can track viewers regardless of the service they use to access content ontheir device?
Yes, today we bring together audience data from manydifferent sources. For example, we were the first to complete the integrationof Zonesport.tv, which combines linear TV data with streamed sports data. Andwe’re not talking about a few panels or audience sampling here; we’re workingwith millions of households. We’re breaking down the barriers between differentviewing formats to create one big dataset, enabling advertisers to plan andevaluate everything holistically.

Haveyour clients evolved as your product has developed?
Yes, of course, we’re seeing innovation on theclient side as well. We have more direct clients because a lot of largeadvertisers have in-house teams and don’t rely solely on agencies. This trendwas already noticeable three years ago and has really taken off since then. Also,back then, clients had to buy our data and product directly from us, whereasnow it is available on various third-party platforms, so clients don’t always haveto interact with us directly. It’s not a significant revenue stream yet, but weexpect it to be the major growth stream in five years.

Howhard is it to find top-tier data specialists?
We now have a dedicated data science team made upof incredible experts. And these aren’t people who studied the field years agothat you can just scoop up from 20 other businesses on the job market. You haveto recruit them straight out of university because this is a new frontierdeveloping right before our eyes, and we’re at the forefront of it. It’sthrilling to know that only about 50 people in the world are tackling aparticular challenge, and we have the top ten working for us.

You’vejust announced your biggest funding round yet – how will the money be used?
It’s basically the same as in 2021, but on a muchlarger scale. Back then, my brother and I were the bottleneck becauseeverything had to go through us. Now we’ve got a great management team inplace, but we still need to expand it and target not just a few new markets,but as many as, let's say, ten. What we need to be looking at is having officesacross Europe. That means processing vast amounts of viewing data, which placesa lot of strain on software and hardware. Data acquisition is also becomingstrategically important. We’re looking at the possibility of buying useful datasources directly, rather than through partnerships or revenue-sharingagreements.

Anew investor is Taiwania Capital – how did that come about?
Considering what ambitions we’re pursuing, we werelooking for someone with a more global perspective than what's offered byregional European funds. That was more of a priority for us than the moneyitself. We want the next stage to be about scaling and becoming moreinternational. As with all our existing investors, we also appreciated theirpersonal approach – they flew out to meet us immediately and spent a lot oftime getting to know us.

Areyou happy with your original investors?
We couldn’t be more pleased that they’ve allparticipated in follow-on funding rounds, even though they don’t have to. Forsome, it’s been a challenge, given the lifecycle of their investments. That’simpressive and, as far as I know, it’s not something you see very often. Theircontacts, networks and experience have been invaluable. South Central Ventures waswith us from the very beginning. They helped us to navigate the initial hurdleas a small Croatian company setting its sights on Europe. Then came J&TVentures, offering great advice and a very personal approach, even though wewere caught up in the Covid pandemic. A year later, we brought Lead Ventures onboard. Their expertise proved to be a great help at a time when we needed toprofessionalize our business and entire organization, while also shifting ourmindset to think bigger as we grew beyond 100 employees.

Whatare the biggest challenges in this next stage?
Now that we’ve got a fantastic senior managementteam, we need to focus one level down, on middle management. Organizationally,we still have a lot to learn from larger companies, particularly when it comesto things like HR, talent culture and thinking internationally. I’d say anotherchallenge is the shift from short-term to long-term thinking. It would be easy,at this point, to chuck money at immediate goals, but we need to consider wherethe market and the world will be in five years or so. Coordinating the techteam is another challenge. We’ve got a packed development roadmap for the next12 to 18 months, so we need to prioritize carefully.

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