This startup raised $25m to show you ads in bars, gyms, and the doctor’s office

Atmosphere TV launched a few years ago as a platform — using Roku sticks — for TVs in bars and restaurants to stream ads.

Unsurprisingly, that customer base didn’t fare too well in 2020, and Atmosphere was forced to pivot.

And it did, by targeting out-of-home locations that people were still able to go to: auto shops and various medical offices (vet, dentist, doctor).

These moves doubled its customer base…

… to 13k and the startup just raised $25m (at a $275m valuation) to help add another 20k locations this year, as reported by Forbes.

As the economy opens up, Atmosphere is aggressively expanding into busy post-pandemic places like airports, hotels, and keg parties college campuses.

The entire ad network reaches 17m people a month

This actually gives Atmosphere’s customers optionality.

Take Hooters, for example:

• Own venues: Atmosphere streams ads across half of the chain’s franchises.
• Stream ads in competing venues: Hooters spends 6 figures running ads across Atmosphere’s installed network, targeting customers at other chicken wing joints, sports taverns, and gyms.

So, if you see a Hooters ad while doing max front squats… you know who sent them.