Vatom

Consumers today crave personalized experiences, including from the brands they support.

They want to feel a personal connection to a brand — to have their experience feel meaningful, legitimate, and interactive.

How do brands achieve this connection? They use a startup called Vatom.

Vatom is a digital-engagement platform that enables brands to create interactive experiences at scale. Using this platform, companies can create unique interactive campaigns to attract and retain customers. As a result, they can increase their sales and lower their costs to acquire and keep customers.

Many of the world’s top brands use Vatom to develop experiences. Notable clients include Google, Verizon, CapitalOne, Pepsi, Intel, Honda, State Farm, Volvo, and Paramount.

Vatom’s technology lays the digital infrastructure for brand engagement. And it does so through a series of offerings. For example:

Wallet — Vatom’s digital wallet enables companies to engage consumers through personalized rewards and experiences. It turns real-world and digital interactions into measurable moments.

Digital Objects — These interactive digital assets are built for real-world applications. They create intelligent engagement and consist of loyalty programs, digital collectibles, event tickets, and fun treasure hunts.

Virtual Spaces — This is a customizable three-dimensional virtual environment that is ideal for numerous verticals and sectors including education, immersive experiences, meetings, and events.

Vatom is effective because it turns connections with consumers from an indirect relationship to a direct one. Typically, brands must put ads through purchasers and publishers that get these ads in front of the consumer.

With Vatom, the purchasers and publishers are no longer needed. The brand can reach consumers directly. Here are a few examples of successful campaigns using Vatom:

Pepsi used Vatom to create a “Pass the Ball” immersive augmented-reality mobile experience. The campaign amassed 400,000 users and two million visitors. Conversion rates were twenty percent (compared to two percent with paid social-media campaigns) and a customer-acquisition cost of $1.50 vs. $22 normally.

Insurance-company State Farm used Vatom to run a campaign with the National Football League in which consumers had to collect digital footballs. The goal was to have 10,000 people collect 500,000 digital footballs in four days.

The campaign was so successful, they collected 500,000 footballs in four hours. In the end, nearly 100,000 people collected 1.5 million footballs. 70,000 rewards were distributed, too, including gift cards, autographed memorabilia, and merchandise.

Finally, iHeart Radio used Vatom to promote live events. The company achieved a conversion rate of sixty-five percent of attendees who clicked registered. And eighty percent of those played the free game. Among those that won, ninety percent claimed their prizes, resulting in a cost-effective, friendly data-gathering campaign.

Vatom launched in 2019. In 2024, the company generated around $2.4 million in revenue.

Team Background

Tom Szabo - Chief Executive Officer

Throughout his thirty-year career, Tom has founded and served as Chairman and CEO of four successful media and tech companies, all of which have successfully exited.

He led Digital-On-Demand and GrayMeta, both of which were acquired. And he founded Telenetix and Public Media Works, both of which he led to successful IPOs.

Colin Hornett - President

Colin began his career as an associate lawyer, specializing as a corporate-commercial litigator and entertainment lawyer. From there, he was Director of Business Development with Choice Records, an entertainment business.

After that, he was Director of Communications with Afa-Press, affiliated with the New York Times. He then was Director of Digital Multimedia with the Miss Universe Organization, the company that puts on the annual pageants.

More recently, Colin was Chief Creative Officer with Sparx Technology, a media company. He then founded Yoggx, a clothing company.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Western University and a Law degree from the University of Windsor.

Co-Investors