AudioMob was founded to help developers monetise their games through non-
interrupting audio ads. Today, with $14 million in funding recently secured from
investors such as Google and others, the company is one of the fastest growing in-game
audio companies globally.
AudioMob is a completely new way to monetise mobile games – it offers non-intrusive audio
ads that can be listened to in-game and can greatly increase player retention, generate better
reviews, all while providing developers with monetisation. Built from the ground up by
developers, for developers, AudioMob strives to offer a simple, elegant alternative to standard
adverts.
This is the company’s own description of its core business. Over the two years of AudioMob’s
existence, its skyrocketing growth has shown that the original proposition was exactly what the
market was looking for.
The perfect combination
The business was established as a start-up in 2020 by Christian Facey, CEO, and Wilfrid
Obeng, CTO, who – both having extensive personal experience and knowledge of
advertisement and gaming – clearly saw a market gap for non-intrusive audio ads within mobile
games.
Christian used to work for Google and Facebook and learned first-hand about measuring the
true value of ads and how they influence people along a kind of a funnel, the conversion funnel.
Outside work, as a keen gamer himself, he had been used to developing his own mobile video
games and has been producing music since the age of 14. When he met Wilfrid Obeng, a
skilled engineer with an impressive career at Google, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, the future
was clear.
“My work for Google and then for Facebook gave me a very good understanding of some of the most advanced methodologies behind measurement, the true value of an advertising format and how it benefits the advertiser and how it distracts the player,” says Christian.
“And then outside of work, I taught myself how to play games, to code, about game design, sound design, animation and graphic design. So basically, and honestly by chance, I had the perfect
combination of skills to launch this company with Wilfrid.”
He explains that the two of them started looking at audio ads as a less intrusive form of
monetisation, then decided to leave their companies, and invested their savings into minimum
viable product streaming, the first audio ads in a game.
The pandemic did not impact AudioMob’s development as more people went into gaming. While
new games that were due to release were delayed, Christian and Wilfrid decided to invest a
seven figure sum into R&D, bringing forward its advertising platform by two years. That
investment enabled the company to scale up exponentially in 2021.
Power of the game
Why gaming and audio? Gaming is the fastest growing area of entertainment, and audio is
having a resurgence amongst consumers globally. “AudioMob was founded on the core
principle that there is a better way to monetise games. Using audio ads, we allow advertisers to
reach their consumers and game developers to monetise their games without interrupting
gameplay,” says Christian.
He explains that AudioMob are innovators in the mobile audio space. The aim is to build
products which are simple, intuitive and help customers meet their goals. It turns out that
gamers don’t seem to mind little ads like this popping up, and somehow AudioMob seems to
have cracked the mechanics.
In November 2021, the company raised a $14 million Series A round led by Makers Fund and
Lightspeed Venture Partners. Also participating are the Sequoia Scout Program and Google.
Total investment to date is now $16 million, with business valuation at $110 million.
AudioMob has seen impressive client successes with artists including Ed Sheeran and Nas
alongside brands like Intel, Jeep and KitKat, who all saw relative metric achievements of more
than 1000%. The company is now positioned and tech-enabled in all countries outside of China
with notable rising stars being the UAE, Latin America, Germany and Canada accessing over
40,000 games through its Audio Ad Platform.
Breaking the trail
Christian explains what makes the company stand out: “For one, we actually pioneered and
created this whole medium. So we are two and a half years ahead of any incumbent that would
want to enter this space. And we do encourage people to enter the space because the overall
value of the industry grows and investment in the space grows as well.”
“In addition, we are paving the way in terms of audio ad verification. We are the only in-game
audio ad company that can analyse the audio state of a phone. We have a lot of competitive
advantages when it comes to brand safety, verifying that the audio is playing from an
operational standpoint. And, importantly, Wilfrid and myself are a great team with
complementary skills and experience, which has enabled us to structure the company in a way
that allows for this growth.”
The company can boast many success stories, first in the music industry and now in other
sectors. When Nas, one of the world’s most popular rappers, was looking to reach even larger
audiences, he turned to AudioMob’s non-interrupting in-game ad format to connect with the
immense mobile gaming audience.
The outcome? Mass Appeal Records used AudioMob’s in-game audio ads for mobile games
and apps to advertise a new Nas album. Performance data shows relative CTR improved over
1200%. The album, King’s Disease II, reached the number one spot in Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-
Hop Albums chart.
Christian comments: “Nas is a great example of our success story. We were seen as a silver
bullet in 2021 in the music space but now we work with most major labels, and many of the
label’s subsidiaries as well as independent artists. We also have automotive advertisers such
as Jeep. We have social media networks, such as Meta. We’ve done work with governments,
as well as the largest music streaming company in the world, and many large retailers.”
A powerful medium
Christian admits that the company would have never made such astonishing progress alone,
without partnerships. “We had some really great early-stage partners, such as Social Point, a
world-renowned game developer and publisher, as well as others, who were giving us a great
feedback as we developed the product.”
“And then on the direct advertiser side, it’s been so helpful working with the likes of BMG,
Universal, Warner, Sony, Ministry of Sound, Epic Records, Microsoft Xbox, Intel and many
more brands. We have also worked with the largest independent media entertainment agencies
in the UK, and one of the largest independent audio ad agencies in Germany, as well as in
Canada and the US. So from a very small sphere within the music space, we’ve now expanded
to have key partners in many major advertising spheres around the world.”
And it does not stop there. The company has just opened an office in Abu Dhabi, and is looking
to aggressively expand globally, now eyeing the US, and making a major investment in an R&D
Lab to be launched later this year in the Middle East.
“We need to double the size of our company in the next six months, and at the moment are on
a massive hiring spree, hiring directors across every conceivable division, hiring the teams as
well. So this is going to be an exciting year,” muses Christian.
In concluding, he points out that the importance of gaming will further increase, a fact to be
included in advertisers’’ overall strategies.
“Netflix is moving into gaming, Amazon has moved into gaming… there’s billions of dollars oriented around gaming, because that’s where the eyes and ears are. Gaming is now a more powerful and more populated medium than TV and social media. This needs to be taken into account if you want to maintain brand, and share a voice for the foreseeable future.”