SCOTTISH technology firm TVSquared expects to break even and recruit new staff over the next 12 months as it continues expanding in the global $200 billion TV advertising market.

The Edinburgh-based company, which currently employs around 100 and has raised more than $25 million (£19m) over five funding rounds, also expects to announce at least two new major television network deals in the next six to eight weeks.

These follow TVSquared’s deal last month with Sky Media, the advertising sales arm of broadcaster and telecoms company, Sky. TVSquared said this would lead to thousands of new brands using its technology platform, ADvantage, which helps advertisers measure and improve the impact, traffic and sales generated by their TV campaigns.

Last August, TVSquared also signed a deal with Effectv, the advertising sales division of US cable TV company Comcast Cable, which represents 35m subscribers in 67 markets.

“As we roll out with Sky and other large partners like Effectv, we get access to their customer base of advertisers,” explained TVSquared founder and chief executive Calum Smeaton. “We probably have about 3,000 advertisers on our platform at the moment, but some of these bigger deals we’re signing will add thousands more.”

Over the next 12 months, the company expects growth in the US – which has a TV audience of about 300 million – to fuel an increase in its advertiser numbers from around 3,000 to 20,000.

“The US will continue to be the major market for us,” Mr Smeaton said. “TV advertising spend in the US is $70 billion, so that’s a big focus. Australia and Europe are a big focus for us too – but the US is just a significantly bigger market than anywhere else in the world.”

About 30 staff are based out of TVSquared’s office in New York City. Employees also work from home bases in Los Angeles, San Diego, Detroit and Florida. Mr Smeaton said the company would be looking to grow its US team, along with adding new roles across its bases in Edinburgh, London, Munich and Sydney. The new team members will work in technology, sales and account management roles. In March, TVSquared promoted its former chief revenue officer, Jo Kinsella, to the role of president and said she had been instrumental in the company’s rapid US expansion.

“We’ve put the investment in place to allow us to build the product and grow the team globally, which is what we’ve done,” Mr Smeaton said. “We’ve used that investment to help win contracts like Effectv and Sky, which gives us access to a much larger customer base. We expect to continue adding deals of that size and that nature in the next 12 months. And in line with that, will grow our revenue and profits. So, it’s really now about turning the investment we’ve had to date into the revenue and profits that we expect.”

TVSquared’s investors include entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter’s investment vehicle, West Coast Capital, and Scottish Enterprise’s investment arm, the Scottish Investment Bank.

Mr Smeaton and Kevin Dorren, who co-founded the former Scottish software firm Orbital Software with Mr Smeaton in the mid-1990s, are also investors.

TVSquared’s last investment round was $5.5m ‘Series C’ funding in May 2019, led by West Coast Capital. Series C is typically the last round of venture capital funding before investors exit by way of a flotation or continued growth on a global scale.

Mr Smeaton said there were no plans for an initial public offering.

“It’s not something we’re considering at the moment,” he said.

“The focus is really on the market, which is changing very quickly even regardless of Covid.”

Mr Smeaton said the company had switched to 100% working from home in March and expected to continue doing this until at least mid-2021. No staff had been furloughed.