Obele Brown-West Named President of Tracer, Company Announces Oversubscribed Series a Round

Tracer, the leading data intelligence platform, announced the appointment of Obele Brown-West to President of Tracer. With her award-winning experience and expertise in integrated marketing, Brown-West will spearhead Tracer’s strategic growth initiatives, further solidifying the company’s position as a revolutionary force in the industry.

Brown-West brings 20 years of experience in leading domestic and global initiatives to Tracer where she will oversee all revenue and operations activities. As she assumes the role of President, Tracer is set to scale new heights under her leadership. The company closes its Series A round co-led by Progress Ventures and BDMI, part of Bertelsmann’s corporate venture arm Bertelsmann Investments, with participation from S4S Ventures, the venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies focused on transforming the marketing and advertising sector through digital innovation, and Arbour Way Investors. Along with the Series A leads, Sanja Partalo of S4S Ventures is joining the Board of Directors.

“I was impressed by Tracer’s ability to drive value and insights regardless of where a business is on its data journey by harnessing the power of data,” said Brown-West. “Throughout my career, I have come across numerous solutions, but Tracer stands out as the only one effectively addressing the technical complexities that brands encounter in today’s reporting ecosystem.”

Tracer is backed by Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore’s VCP Ventures, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Thirty Five Ventures, Stephen Ross and Matt Higgins’ RSE Ventures, and Gary Vaynerchuk. Tracer was initially incubated within VaynerX, the umbrella company led by Vaynerchuk, until its launch in 2018.

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“We at VCP Ventures are proud to see other investors recognize Tracer’s opportunity to become a billion-dollar company and congratulate them on completing their Series A round,” said Rodriguez.

“Over the past two years, Tracer’s value has only grown more evident as the company continues to grow its client base, scale its team and innovate the product. We perceive an unparalleled investment opportunity with Tracer through our persistent trust in the capabilities of this world-class team and the relentless pursuit of their vision,” said Lore.

As it becomes increasingly more difficult to effectively leverage data, the Tracer product solves both the technical and business complexities that companies face. Tracer empowers brands to analyze performance within the context of what actually matters, while removing the friction to answer questions through data.

The technology seamlessly integrates and contextualizes cross-platform data. The solution’s differentiation lies in its flexible product design, user interface and the ability to create automated reporting and analytics across any data source without unnecessary overhead. Automated rules configure how data sources talk to each other and data is organized into constructs relevant to each business. Tracer’s use of data strategy elements – people, process, product – make its approach to data aggregation unique and results more significant.

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Tracer’s Co-Founders CEO Jeff Nicholson and CTO Leighton Welch remain steadfast in their commitment to scaling the company.

“Obele’s hiring and the caliber of talent she represents marks the beginning of an exciting growth phase for Tracer,” said Nicholson. “We’re extremely humbled by the group of partners that have participated in our Series A and the level of interest we’ve received. We are thankful for the continued support of our past investors who helped make this opportunity possible.”

Since its initial seed funding in 2021, Tracer has doubled its team and added to its impressive client roster which includes Condé Nast, Headspace, January Digital, Media.Monks, Sanofi, and VaynerMedia.

“Data is the new oil in all new technologies and there is no data intelligence platform like Tracer,” said S4S Investment Committee member and Executive Chairman of S4Capital Sir Martin Sorrell of the decision to back the business. “Media.Monks is a client and it’s been invaluable to us to have Tracer as a single source of truth on client accounts. Investing was a natural next step.”

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