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Rembrand has raised a $23 million Series A to bolster its AI-powered platform for virtual product placement as it expands from social media videos to connected TV, CEO Omar Tawakol exclusively tells Axios.

Why it matters: The investment supports an innovative form of advertising amid fatigue in traditional formats.

How it works: Founded in 2022, Rembrand creates software for adding product placements in videos. The startup began with YouTube and expanded to LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram. It's worked with about 20 brands including those under PepsiCo, L'Oréal and Amazon. 

Rembrand charges clients on cost per impression against views for their products appearing on creator videos. Creators are paid per view.

The Palo Alto-based company has about 60 employees. 

The latest: Tawakol says the funding supports Rembrand launching two new business models. It will offer a self-service product called AI Studio, where brands can license the technology and arrange their own creator deals.

The startup will also service professional TV content and recently signed its first deal with a production company.  

Rembrand will launch a free version where anyone can augment their videos.

Catch up quick: Tawakol is an experienced founder. He sold data management platform BlueKai to Oracle in 2014 and voice collaboration platform Voicea to Cisco in 2019.

Zoom in: Super{set} led the round and was joined by The Trade Desk, Naver D2SF, L'Oréal's venture capital fund BOLD, Greycroft and Aperiam.

Super{set} general partner Tom Chavez tells Axios he met Tawakol when they ran competitors — Krux Digital and BlueKai — and stayed in touch.

"When I first saw Rembrand, it was exciting. It wasn't a gimmick. This was a deeply rooted capability that, in my view, had the possibility of transforming martech, ad tech, advertising experiences broadly for decades to come," Chavez says. 

Zoom out: Product placement is far from new. But AI and other tech advancements have made it easier to add and alter post-production.

NBCUniversal and Amazon announced virtual product placements on their streaming services in 2022. BENlabs and TripleLift have offered solutions.

By the numbers: Rembrand is unprofitable. Revenue grew 6x from 2023 to 2024, Tawakol says. 

Paid views were about 250 million in 2024. Tawakol says he expects that to reach billions in 2025.

Rembrand raised $9 million in seed funding in 2023. 

What's next: Tawakol says Rembrand hopes to grow beyond advertising.

"By opening up free access to the system, we're going to start to see uses of this photorealistic video augmentation in ways that we couldn't have imagined," Tawakol says.

Exclusive: Rembrand raises $23M for virtual product placement

The startup has expanded from social videos to connected TV

an illustration of ben franklin taking a selfie on an iphone 

Rembrand has raised a $23 million Series A to bolster its AI-powered platform for virtual product placement as it expands from social media videos to connected TV, CEO Omar Tawakol exclusively tells Axios.Why it matters: The investment supports an innovative form of advertising <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="amid fatigue in traditional formats" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/pro/media-deals/2023/10/18/streaming-ads-creative-binge-pause" data-vars-content-id="8d804bf6-5812-4da1-a161-da365ab4834b" data-vars-headline="Exclusive: Rembrand raises $23M for virtual product placement" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/pro/media-deals/2023/10/18/streaming-ads-creative-binge-pause" target="_self">amid fatigue in traditional formats</a>.

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Exclusive: Rembrand raises $23M for virtual product placement

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