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Motion raises US$30 million to build the command center for creative strategists

TORONTO, Sept. 19, 2024 /CNW/ – Motion, the creative analytics and research platform used by creative strategists, announced today that it has secured $30 million USD in Series B funding led by Inovia with participation from Threshold Ventures as well as existing investors Headline, Abstract Ventures, and Sugar Capital. The funding will accelerate Motion’s product roadmap and deepen its analytics and creative research capabilities. This raise brings the company’s total funding to $42 million USD. Audience targeting on ad platforms has become more algorithm-based and growth leaders know that creative is the #1 lever for success. This has led to the rise of the creative strategist—a new role responsible for bridging the gap between the analytical and creative sides of marketing. With Motion, creative strategists can research ad trends, analyze performance, and get inspired with new ideas to maximize the revenue impact from creative. Since launching in 2021, Motion has been adopted by top performance advertisers in the ecommerce and direct-to-consumer space. Ecommerce brands like HexClad, Vuori, True Classic, Jones Road Beauty, and Ridge use Motion to analyze over $6B in media spend every year. “Motion’s customers are the best-of-the-best in paid social and the creative strategist is at the core of their workflow. Our goal is to make the creative strategist role more approachable for everyone by building the tools they need to ship more winning ads,” said Reza Khadjavi, the CEO at Motion. In the last year, Motion doubled its headcount from 25 to 50 employees and has grown to over 1,000 customers in the direct-to-consumer and ecommerce industry, as well as the B2B SaaS and consumer app verticals. In addition to its creative analytics tools that help advertisers understand top-performing ads and visualize trends, Motion released today a new product called Creative Research that extends its utility deeper into the research side of ad production. With Creative Research, brands can track competitors on paid social. This helps brands monitor new ads launched by competitors, build a swipe file with ads from Facebook and TikTok, and analyze the media mix, messaging, and landing pages of top competitors. “Motion doesn’t just provide information—it actively helps teams make better decisions and fosters a pathway for innovation, rather than simply iterating on the same ideas,” says Inovia Partner Karam Nijjar. “The team’s experience uniquely positions them to become the command center for creative strategy within marketing organizations.” Motion also announced today that the popular YouTube and advertising industry influencer Dara Denney is joining the company as its Chief Evangelist. In her role, Dara Denney will advise on product direction, create educational content for Motion’s customers, and help train the next generation of creative strategists. Motion is hiring across the board for engineering, product management, marketing, customer success, and sales roles. Visit Motion’s careers page for more information. About Motion Motion is the command center for creative strategists. With Motion, creative strategists get help at every step of their workflow including visual analysis of top-performing ads, competitor tracking, research tools, and automated recommendations to help prioritize what to ship next. Motion’s customers include some of the most prominent advertisers in paid social. Brands like HexClad, Vuori, True Classic, Jones Road Beauty, and Ridge use Motion to analyze over $6B in media spend every year. For more information, visit motionapp.com. About Inovia Capital Inovia Capital is Canada’s leading full-stack software investor, partnering with founders to build impactful global companies. With three investment strategies—Discovery, Venture, and Growth—the team leverages an operator-led mindset to provide entrepreneurs with multi-stage support and access to a worldwide network. Inovia manages over US$2.5B with operations in Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, Calgary, the Bay Area, and London. For more information, visit inovia.vc.