Rembrand, a product placement start-up that uses generative AI and other AI models to automate product placement in online videos, has recently added several more strategic investors to an $8m seed funding round, following its announcement earlier this year. CEO and co-founder Omar Tawakol returned to his advertising technology roots and graduate work in AI with Rembrand, which he founded to take advantage of an underutilised opportunity for scalable product placement that could be delivered cost-effectively for online influencers. The company is using AI to significantly expand the market.
The three main trends that Rembrand is focused on are product placement, video consumption and changing monetisation ideas. Video consumption is exploding, but people dislike interruptive ads. Rembrand intends to provide a native format that is non-interruptive, and that is what product placement delivers. The focus is on how to monetise content in a way that works for everyone. Rembrand is also concentrating on effectiveness, something that for 20 years had been overlooked in favour of efficiency in the adtech-martech ecosystem.
Tawakol was earlier CEO of Blue Kai, and was also CEO of Voicera, an early leader in the automated meeting transcription space that later rebranded to Voicea, which Cisco acquired in 2019. The company pioneered architectures that led to rapid performance increases. Tawakol was formerly a board director at PlaceIQ and is a board member at Liveramp.