Madhive, a leading advertising software platform engineered for modern TV advertising, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement with the Private Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (“Goldman Sachs”) for a $300 million investment in the company.
Goldman Sachs’ significant equity investment comes as Madhive’s connected TV (“CTV”) advertising software platform is leading the TV industry’s expansion from linear TV advertising into streaming, primarily through its large local broadcaster clients including FOX, Scripps, and TEGNA, among others. The partnership with Goldman Sachs will enable Madhive to further accelerate the growth and adoption of its CTV platform, most notably within the local advertising market, as well as expand new channels such as national / direct-to-consumer advertisers and retail media networks, who are looking to modernize and scale their CTV offerings.
Madhive was founded in 2016 with the original mission of transforming the $360 billion digital TV advertising industry. Co-founders, Adam Helfgott and Tom Bollich, serial entrepreneurs from outside the ad-tech space, saw a more efficient and streamlined way to build for the nascent CTV industry across both the supply and demand side.
“Since inception, Madhive has been on a mission to modernize and simplify the ad-tech ecosystem. We purpose-built the Madhive platform in anticipation of the growth of streaming TV — investing in engineering, technology, and infrastructure,” said Adam Helfgott, Founder & CEO of Madhive. “Our growth stems from collaborating with partners to solve a host of their unique requirements. Through our fully end-to-end tech stack for TV advertising, media sellers and advertisers have the flexibility and tools to reach streaming audiences efficiently at scale.”
Madhive’s full-stack programmatic platform powers hundreds of millions of dollars in media across 20,000+ daily campaigns. The self-service platform is completely configurable and has tools for planning, targeting, activating, and measuring programmatic TV campaigns.
“Madhive believes in extensive collaboration to move the industry forward, and we are excited to partner with Goldman Sachs to fuel our next chapter of growth,” said Spencer Potts, President of Madhive. Upon closing of the transaction, Adam Helfgott will transition to Strategic Advisor and Chairman of the Board and Spencer Potts will transition to CEO of Madhive.
“We have been deeply impressed with Madhive’s growth and success in the local CTV advertising market within just seven years since its inception,” said Leonard Seevers, a Partner and Co-Head of Technology, Media and Telecom investments in the Private Equity business within Goldman Sachs. “We are incredibly excited to partner with the Madhive team to drive long-term growth and value creation together.”
“We believe Madhive’s purpose-built, end-to-end CTV platform which enables hyper-local precision targeting at national scale is truly differentiated within the ad-tech ecosystem,” added Joon Park, a Managing Director in the Private Equity business within Goldman Sachs. “We see tremendous growth ahead in the company’s existing and adjacent markets and look forward to supporting Madhive to further accelerate the company's journey.”
As one of the world’s largest alternative investment managers with over $445 billion of assets, Goldman Sachs has developed an extensive investment track record across the marketing and advertising technology space with select recent investments including iSpot.tv, HUMAN, GumGum and Innovid, among others. The Private Equity business within Goldman Sachs has invested over $90 billion of equity capital in over 900 companies globally since its inception in 1986.
Madhive is headquartered in New York and has approximately 200 employees, with headcount expected to increase by 20% in 2023, at a time when many tech companies are downsizing. Most recently, Madhive hired the former Google and Pinterest executive, Jon Kaplan, as Chief Revenue Officer. Kaplan has extensive expertise in building and scaling large enterprises in the digital advertising and technology categories. This year, Madhive also hired the former Roku and Hulu executive, Kristin Wnuk, as SVP of Sales and the former Affirm and Capital One Software executive, Darien Ford, as Chief Technology Officer.
Latham & Watkins is serving as legal counsel to Madhive. Weil, Gotshal & Manges is serving as legal counsel to Goldman Sachs.
About Madhive
Madhive is the leading technology company engineered for modern TV advertising. Through its self-service platform, Madhive modernizes legacy systems, enabling advertisers to seamlessly automate the ad buying process into one operating system. This allows advertisers to plan, target, activate, and measure their campaigns with greater simplicity, accountability, reach, and control. Powered by an industry-leading bidder and device graph that processes 260 billion available ad opportunities per day, Madhive delivers precise, brand-safe audience connections efficiently at scale. The company is trusted by the leading local content owners, creators, and distributors, including FOX, Scripps and TEGNA, as well as national agencies and brands, powering more than a quarter billion dollars in media in media across 20,000+ daily campaigns. To learn more, visit madhive.com.
About Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Bringing together traditional and alternative investments, Goldman Sachs Asset Management provides clients around the world with a dedicated partnership and focus on long-term performance. As the primary investing area within Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), we deliver investment and advisory services for the world’s leading institutions, financial advisors and individuals, drawing from our deeply connected global network and tailored expert insights, across every region and market—overseeing more than $2.6 trillion in assets under supervision worldwide as of March 31, 2023. Driven by a passion for our clients’ performance, we seek to build long-term relationships based on conviction, sustainable outcomes, and shared success over time. Follow us on LinkedIn.