Madrid-based Seedtag, a company that offers a suite of contextual advertising solutions based on machine learning and artificial intelligence, announced on Wednesday that it has raised over €250M in funding from private equity investor Advent International.
Advent International claims to be one of the largest global private equity investors. The firm has made over 395 private equity investments and has €68.6B in AUM. It focuses on investments in five core sectors, including ‘business and financial services’, ‘healthcare’, ‘industrial’, ‘retail, consumer and leisure’, and ‘technology’.
As part of the deal, Seedtag’s existing investors Oakley Capital, Adara and All Iron Ventures will support the company in its next phase of growth.
This funding comes after the Madrid-based startup witnessed success in 2021. It acquired French adtech company KMTX (previously Keymantics), a platform specialised in building AI models to optimise and automate performance marketing campaigns, and raised $40M in its Series B round in September 2021.
A contextual advertising company
Businesses around the world are using the internet to showcase their products and services for growth. But how do they reach you? It’s by that little “Accept cookies” button you click on while browsing different websites.
However, it has now impacted people who are raising concerns regarding their data privacy. Today, a large volume of users/consumers are against cookie policies. Besides cookies, intrusive ads that hamper browsing are the other big issue among consumers. This is where contextual advertising firm Seedtag looks to make a difference.
Founded in 2014 by two ex-Googlers, Albert Nieto and Jorge Poyatos, Seedtag aims to be the global contextual advertising partner for brands and agencies. Its contextual AI allows brands to engage with consumers within their universe of interest on a cookie-free basis.
Seedtag claims that its solution is currently the leading contextual solution in Europe and Latin America, with its AI and programmes such as Seedtag LAB providing advertisers with a deeper understanding of user interest without the use of personal data.
The company has more than 300 employees and an international presence with offices in Spain, France, Italy, the UK, Benelux, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Chile, and the US.
Capital utilisation
Seedtag says it will use the proceeds to further scale its Contextual AI technology LIZ, as well as for innovation and global operations. It will also advance its expansion into the US, the world’s largest advertising market and provide more firepower for further M&A activity as Seedtag enters its next phase of international growth.
With Albert Nieto migrating and offices already established in New York, Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles, growth in the US is a primary strategic emphasis.
Co-founders Jorge Poyatos and Albert Nieto say, “We’re very excited about this partnership with Advent. This investment will massively accelerate our US expansion, boost our growth and reinforce our team and the development of our technology. This move further supports our mission of building the leading global platform for contextual advertising, offering an effective solution for cookieless advertising on the open web.”
Poyatos and Nieto will continue as investors, leading the business from both its Spanish and the US headquarters.
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