AD TECH AND MARTECH
Cavai | August 23, 2021
Cavai, the global leader in conversational ad tech, has raised £6.5m from a range of prominent investors including Norway’s 2 largest venture players, Investinor and Idekapital, and ad tech industry specialist FirstPartyCapital. It will use the funds to bolster its offering in existing markets, develop its product portfolio, and expand in the US as it gets IPO-ready
Alex Rahaman, London based partner at Idekapital, has relevant international ad tech experience and will join the board, commenting:
“Conversational, digital advertising is the new, future-facing way for global advertisers to reach and very effectively engage with audiences. Ahead of huge changes in the industry, Cavai has been recognised as the leader in this space, with the most intuitive self-serve technology already adopted by major holding groups. We at Idekapital were very impressed with the speed and effectiveness with which Steffen and the Cavai team have built an international business and are delighted to be leading this round together with Investinor and other reputable international investors”.
Rich Ashton, managing partner, FirstPartyCapital comments:
“Historically, creativity has been hard to automate and scale, which is perhaps why the ad industry has placed so much emphasis on hyper-targeting consumers through data, at the expense of the user experience. However, Cavai’s solution is a complete game-changer, enabling marketers to easily create highly-engaging online experiences that people actually want to interact with. The metrics speak for themselves: clients are seeing 10-20x ROAS, resulting in a 3x YoY revenue increase for the company. This opportunity was an absolute no-brainer for us. Steffen and the team have built the foundations of an iconic company, and we are extremely excited to help them achieve their goal of becoming one of the most successful ad tech companies of the decade”.
Cavai was founded in Oslo in 2018 and now has over 60 employees globally, with offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich, London, Singapore, Barcelona, Toronto, and New York. As the company continues its global expansion, it is developing next-generation, user-centric marketing solutions which enable one-to-one dialogue with consumers across a variety of formats, including video. Cavai will also be launching conversational e-commerce solutions which will integrate with local payment solutions providers and enable in-ad purchases. As marketers move away from interruptive formats and seek privacy-by-design solutions to personalise communications and generate insights, conversational formats have helped Cavai’s clients to stand out from the competition, drive ROI whilst enabling true interactivity, and bringing humanity to brand communications.
Steffen Svartberg, founder and CEO of Cavai, comments:
“We are delighted to have found industry-focused investors that understand the huge changes that are happening within the marketplace, whilst having also found investment funds that can take us through multiple series of funding as we scale, compete on a truly global level and build up towards an IPO”.
“We have built a platform that is sustainable, with user experience baked into the core. Non-interruptive formats deliver insights whilst also guiding consumers, with brands such as Amazon, Nivea, and BMW leveraging our platform to great effect. Our client list includes 6 of the biggest media agencies in the world. With an exceptionally strong appetite for conversational advertising, Cavai has seen 3X revenue growth from H1 2020 to H1 2021”.
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DISPLAY ADVERTISING
Anzu.io, Azerion | June 08, 2021
Anzu.io, the world's most advanced in-game advertising platform, has announced a new collaboration with Azerion, a leading pan-European digital gaming and monetization platform that provides casual and social games and videos, as well as digital marketing services for both publishers and advertisers. Azerion will now provide Anzu's market-leading blended in-game advertising solution throughout the world via its proprietary programmatic platform, Improve Digital, which generates over 1.6 trillion transactions every month.
Azerion's advertisers will programmatically display IAB-recognized in-game video and banner advertisements at scale across mobile, PC, and console platforms due to the integration with Anzu's in-game advertising platform. Anzu's innovative SDK technology, GDPR, COPPA, and CCPA compliant, is integrated into games and offers high-quality direct traffic with complete control over ad placements and first-party data.
In collaboration with advertising giant WPP, Anzu has introduced existing digital marketing standards into the game to enhance advertiser confidence in gaming as a media channel and prove its worth. Anzu collaborates with renowned AdTech providers such as Moat, Comscore, Nielsen, and Kantar to ensure fraud-free and brand-safe environments and track ad viewability, brand lift, and audience verification. A recent pilot with Cheq showed that using Anzu instead of typical 2D digital advertising increased ad viewability by 23%. Clients include top global brands such as American Eagle, 7-Eleven, Samsung, Vodafone, and gaming studio behemoths such as Ubisoft, Virtuverse, Lion Castle, and Vivid Games.
Azerion already has a substantial presence in the gaming sector, with a collection of over 16.000 game titles attracting over 1.5 billion content views each month. Around its owned inventory, the company provides secure and lucrative ad placement (display advertisements, video, rich media, mobile web, and in-app). Azerion expands its services by collaborating with Anzu to provide a scalable solution for advertisers to seamlessly mix their ads into gaming environments, addressing the vast and diverse gaming audiences in a new way.
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AD NETWORKS
Integral Ad Science | January 24, 2022
Integral Ad Science (Nasdaq: IAS), a global leader in digital media quality, announced the appointment of Robert Janecek as Chief Information Officer, as the company continues its global growth. Based in New York, Janecek reports directly to Oleg Bershadsky, Chief Operating Officer at IAS.
"Rob's vital expertise leading our enterprise systems team for more than four years makes him perfectly positioned to take on this critical new role at IAS as we build for the future," said Oleg Bershadsky, Chief Operating Officer, IAS. "I'm confident that Rob's leadership and technical expertise will set us on an even stronger path to support our global acceleration and growth."
Janecek brings nearly thirty years of experience to his expanded role as CIO, where he oversees enterprise systems, IT, security, and analytics. Most recently he was the SVP, Enterprise Systems at IAS. Previously, he was the Principal and Founder of Pinecliff Associates, a consulting firm. Prior to that role, he was the Global Head of Business Systems and IT at LivePerson. He was previously the Vice President of MIS in the Markets Division of Thomson Reuters. Prior to that, he held several leadership positions focused on business systems at Thomson Financial.
"I'm thrilled to take on this newly created role at IAS to scale our systems as IAS continues its international growth and provides a high level of service to customers around the globe," said Janecek.
About Integral Ad Science
Integral Ad Science (IAS) is a global leader in digital media quality. IAS makes every impression count, ensuring that ads are viewable by real people, in safe and suitable environments, activating contextual targeting, and driving supply path optimization. Our mission is to be the global benchmark for trust and transparency in digital media quality for the world's leading brands, publishers, and platforms. We do this through data-driven technologies with actionable real-time signals and insight.
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