After a relatively quiet two years, investors appear to be regaining appetite for ad tech in terms of early-stage investments, with sources predicting more big mergers and acquisitions in the second half of 2024. are doing.
It would be premature to say that a new wave is coming. Still, recent activity stands in stark contrast to investor conservatism in 2023, with speculation focused on the AI and CTV sectors.
For example, France-based Vibe.co today announced $22.5 million in funding. The startup likens itself to the “His Google Ads of streaming” and touts itself as the go-to His CTV platform for marketers in the small business sector.
The Series A round was led by Singular, with Elaia Partners
Joining experienced ad tech investors including Sequoia’s Scout Fund, Motier, and Benjamin
Antier, Cyril Vermeulin, Laurent Asher, Berry Group, and Alain Lebac.
Raffi Kamber, general partner and co-founder of Singular, pointed out how Vibe presented an alternative to more “established players” such as YouTube.
Meanwhile, Vibe CEO Arthur Querou explained how his company aims to help small and medium-sized business marketers address the growing fragmentation in the space. “You have a broadcast station. [and streamers] Just like Hulu and Roku are launching their own platforms, we want to be the only platform that helps them execute their entire CTV advertising strategy. ”
Earlier this week, TVScientific announced a $9.4 million round disguised as a convertible note with participation from investors S4S Ventures, BDMI, and Progress Ventures. Meanwhile, ad tech veteran Michael Rubenstein last week announced a $6.5 million funding round led by Radical Ventures for his latest AI venture, Firsthand.
Separately, First Party Capital also made a seed investment in Bedrock, a startup led by former Google and IPONWEB executive Shave Shevlin.
Rich Ashton, managing partner at First Party Capital, told Digiday that the investment is aimed at seizing the opportunity presented by the loss of traditional ad tech tools such as third-party cookies. “The whole space is about to be turned upside down,” he said. [Bedrock] We want to be an infrastructure company that can help ad networks, retail media publishers, and anyone with their own first-party data build their own specialized bidder or buy-side solutions. ”
Elaia’s Pauline Lu, one of the venture capital investors behind Vibe, told Digiday that the ad tech space has become increasingly crowded with fewer standout players compared to the high-growth era of the early 2010s. , said that interest in ad tech has waned in recent years. “There aren’t that many ad tech companies that have the opportunity to be worth billions of dollars,” Lu said. “I think he’s one of the few in CTV.” [of ad tech] A place where you can make a difference. ”
Meanwhile, another source told Digiday that a more stable flow of M&A deals is expected in the second half of 2024, with Will Ritchie of investment advisory firm WY Partners expects to be active in this area in the second half of this year.
“We expect more PE-backed large marketing groups in the UK to follow Brainlab and MSQ Partners and aim to exit to new investors in 2024,” he said. . “At the same time, the newly invested group could leverage its capital to drive more M&A activity through bolt-on acquisitions.”
Stephen Masters, a partner at GTCR, the PE firm that runs Simpli.fi, told Digiday: It took a few years to get over the turmoil of the last two years, but it’s a pretty good market right now. ”