Success Story
| Region/Nation | London |
|---|---|
| Sector | Technology |
| Programme | Start Up Loans |
Karoline Gross always wanted to do her own thing and Start Up Loans helped her do just that.
She attended medical school, going on to study fashion after. However, while in Los Angeles, Karoline decided to start a production company as a subsidiary of a Finnish media company her family owns. Karoline and her friend were shooting a travel show pilot, allowing people to interact from the contact when the idea came to move from production to tech. Many people convinced her that she didn’t have to be a developer to undergo this transition in her business, but that she could hire someone to help her.
After receiving a small amount of investment, Karoline saw that it was necessary to have more finance and so she approached Start Up Loans for further funding through Delivery Partner Start Up Direct.
Karoline’s business, Smartzer, is an online video tagging software – it enables clients to tag their videos, allowing them to get better ads and market exposure, and giving viewers the ability to click directly through videos to purchase products they have seen. Effectively it allows customers to shop directly through a video, even working across all devices.
Karoline recognised that while video content is getting more and more prevalent with companies and brands of all shapes and sizes, it is relatively passive and hard to monetise. Even high engagement videos can struggle to get a measurable return on investment. The Smartzer technology changes that.
With a huge range of well known clients such as Barbour, Grazia, Puma and M&S, Karoline is revolutionising the way shoppers can interact online. The technology can be used for clothing, holidays, home items and more, and it is this clever versatility that has the company continuing to go from strength to strength. The team is nine strong already, and the future looks bright indeed for Karoline and Smartzer.
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