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AVAC Invests in Tynt’s Plans to Revolutionize How People Use Online Content

When Calgary’s Tynt Multimedia first began looking for ways to create an online product that was focused primarily on teens and social networking, they had no way of knowing how the coming economic crisis would create a new opportunity.

“The economic downturn forced our potential customers to rethink their business models,” notes Derek Ball, Tynt’s CEO. ”Then suddenly we saw this opportunity emerging to pursue the evolution of online journalism.” That opportunity took the form of their Tracer service, which can monitor and track when online users copy content from a web site, and then attach attribution to that content. This tells publishers where the content is being used and which content is most interesting to users, while helping to drive traffic back to their sites. ”It really provides added value to the publishing industry, which is something they really need in the current market.”

Ball says that feedback so far on Tracer has been amazing. ”People keep saying they didn’t realize you could do this and are asking why someone hadn’t thought to do it before.” During Tynt’s first eight weeks of beta testing, they racked up more than 200 million impressions and lined up contracts with several online publishers, including the New York Daily News.

For Ball, AVAC’s decision to invest in Tynt was something of a leap of faith. ”We know that we’re a little different than what AVAC usually invests in – we don’t manufacture software that’s easy to make and sell, or a product which you can hold, which makes it difficult for potential investors to see where the return on investment would be. And of course with AVAC, the idea for Tracer hadn’t evolved yet, so they were betting on the management team and our track record and they were willing to take that chance.”

AVAC isn’t alone. In early March, iNovia, one of AVAC’s fund-of-fund partners also announced that they were investing in Tynt, and together with AVAC and angel investors, helped complete a $5-million financing round. Ball knows that AVAC’s investment makes it easier for others to get onboard. ”AVAC’s due diligence was pretty thoughtful and thorough and gave them and us a good idea of what we had and what we didn’t have at that time. It can also make other investors, particularly angel investors who may not be able to perform the same amount of due diligence, feel more comfortable with putting their own money into it.”