Startup Program
A unique learning, partnership-development and networking opportunity for startups innovating in measurement, currency development, metrics and data collaboration across the media and/or advertising industries.
Applications for the 2026 program are closed. Questions about the program? Email innovation@cimm-us.org.
About the CIMM Startup Program
The CIMM Startup Program attracts young, innovative technology companies that are working to build new approaches and apply emerging technologies to industry problems of strong relevance to CIMM members. Startup Program participants will be building product solutions aligned with CIMM’s core mission: innovations in measurement and currency development, metrics and data collaboration across the media and/or advertising industries.
Startups are selected via an application process to join the CIMM Startup Program, joining a cohort of like-minded startups. The Program runs for one year, beginning in January, followed by new cohorts selected for each subsequent calendar year.
Qualifications
Building in product areas with strong relevance to CIMM’s core mission – e.g. innovations in measurement and currency development, metrics and data collaboration across the media and/or advertising industries.
Founded within the past 3 years
Have raised some funding
Possess a product that is in-market or near launch (with the ability to demo)
Have the U.S. as a core or primary addressable market (though U.S. headquarters is not required)
Benefits for Startups
Full access to CIMM programs, meetings and events, research, and networking opportunities.
CIMM annual membership fee will be fully waived. No fee, no equity, no funding.
A “buddy program” will pair each startup with a traditional CIMM member company, to provide informal support and guidance – meeting at least quarterly.
Each startup CEO guaranteed at least one on-stage presence at a live CIMM event in 2026.
CIMM will foster community-building and learning across the cohort of startups in the Program through guest speakers and in-person networking.
CIMM-enabled exposure and introductions to their potential customer and partnership base – e.g. agencies, advertisers, OEMs, MVPDs, broadcasters, and streamers.
Benefits for Existing Members
Exposure to frontier technology development in measurement, ad effectiveness, and video.
Each startup will host two (virtual) seminars exclusively for CIMM members, demo’ing their solution and showcasing their company’s progress.
Each startup will join at least one CIMM Working Group, building in more exposure points between CIMM members and innovative startups.
Meet the 2026 Startup Members
Aqxle’s system of connected AI agents replaces legacy workflows for marketers like Unilever and Lenovo that are bringing agency functions in-house. Aqxle’s intelligence layer unifies existing marketing data — no matter where it lives or what format it’s in — to streamline processes, accelerate decision-making, and drive measurable business impact.
BranchLab is building the AI platform for pharma commercialization. We help pharma brands and their partners design, activate and measure audiences to drive health outcomes. Our proprietary neural networks predict health outcomes in demographic data, without using regulated personal health information, enabling privacy-safe, high performing activation across all media channels.
DAIVID is the world’s first scalable, always-on creative effectiveness platform. Using AI trained on billions of data points, including 52k videos and 5.2m respondents, DAIVID can test and evaluate thousands of ads per day, identifying how well any ad delivers on the drivers of creative effectiveness: attention, emotions, memory and next step intentions.
Simantea is building the next generation of media panels, offering clients access to high quality, single-source purchase and media data in real-time powered by a mobile app which tracks continuous capture of purchases, web/app use, location, and TV/digital ad exposure from a nationally representative panel.
Vuer has built the most scalable method to verify TV co-viewing in real time, unlocking a true audience-based currency for Connected and Linear TV advertising. This enables publishers, agencies, and DSPs to transact on verified impressions — a new premium metric that accurately reflects audience size and engagement.
Wantent is an AI-powered emotion and content measurement platform that captures how audiences truly experience content, moment by moment, using facial expression and behavioral signals. For CIMM members, it provides a new layer of audience truth by cutting through survey bias and social filtering to deliver objective, decision-ready insight that media, advertising and research teams can use to improve creative and performance.
How to Apply
- Applications open: Late 2026
- Finalist interviews: Late 2026 (via Zoom)
- Launch: January 2027 (cohort of five startups announced and program begins)
About CIMM
The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) is a non-partisan, pan-industry coalition focused on cultivating improvements, best practices and innovations in measurement and currency, new metrics and approaches to understanding the value of media, and data collaboration and enablement. CIMM’s 100+ members include leading networks, studios, streamers and programmers, MVPDs, TV OEMs and OS providers, major digital businesses, agencies, measurement and data providers, trade bodies and consultants. CIMM is a subsidiary of the Advertising Research Foundation and adheres to the ARF’s principles of scientific rigor, objectivity and evidence-based research.
CIMM members work together to learn, network, collaborate and drive change through a rich program of commissioned research projects, live in-person events, Working Groups, and regular virtual guest speakers, research deep dives, and salons. CIMM is a cross between think tank, consulting resource and research vehicle for collective projects, all undertaken for Coalition members.
