Advertising technology firm Captify has raised £8 million in a Series B funding round led by Smedvig Capital, the parties have announced.

Captify has earmarked the money to invest in its search intelligence technology, expand its product suite and accelerate international expansion.

The business develops search intelligence technology to help brands target their advertising campaigns more effectively. It currently works with around 90 media agencies in the UK and more than 100 in Europe.

It has run campaigns on behalf of: Microsoft, British Airways, Barclays, Warner Brothers, SKY, BMW, Hilton and American Express.

The company previously received £1.2 million of Series A investment from Panoramic Growth Equity in 2013.

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In the following two years it has increased gross revenue by 300% and grown its staff from 11 to 65 employees. It has also opened offices in Hamburg and Kiev during this period. Its revenue is expected to hit £15 million this year.

CEO and founder Dominic Joseph called the latest investment a “significant milestone for Captify”.

“It will enable us to consolidate our position as the European market leader in search data driven advertising and analytics and put us on course to claim true global leadership,” he continued.

“It is indicative of how the European ad tech space is flourishing and providing genuinely tough competition to established US rivals.”

Smedvig Capital principal Jon Lerner called Captify the “clear European leader” in advertising technology.

“The Captify team has built fantastic client relationships through proprietary technology, unique data, great performance and excellent customer service,” he said.

“There is a large global market opportunity here, and we are very much looking forward to working closely with Dom and Adam to further scale the business.”

Further reading: Velocity raises $12m in Series A funding round