Ad-Shield, a provider of next-gen adblock recovery solutions, announced today the successful closing of a $2 million Pre-Series A funding round. Shorooq Partners led the oversubscribed round, joined by existing investors, Bass Investment and Hashed.
Launched in 2023, Ad-Shield leverages its proprietary adblock recovery technology to help publishers monetize previously unreachable audiences. Globally, it is estimated that over 30% of internet users employ some form of adblocking services, willingly or unwillingly. These services disadvantage many businesses, most notably publishers, who rely on ads for customer insights and revenue generation. Until now, there have been few options for publishers to address this growing issue and Ad-Shield aims to break the status quo.
“More and more publishers are struggling to stay afloat with declining ad revenue and increasing costs,” said Dustin Cha, Co-Founder & CSO of Ad-Shield. “We’ve seen as high as 65% adblock usage on some of the publishers that we serve, and this is frankly a matter of staying alive for them. Many publishers have come to us asking for help, trying to reach this audience, with no real viable solution. That’s why we have developed this next-gen technology to give more publishers access to this new solution while maintaining audience trust.”
Ad-Shield’s mission is to create a sustainable, ad-supported web ecosystem – rather than to remove ads entirely. Intrusive ads lead to the installation of adblockers, which in turn causes revenue loss for publishers. In desperation, publishers increase the number of ads or compromise on quality, triggering a further rise in adblocker usage. This cycle not only affects publishers but also advertisers, who experience diminished returns on their ad spend and obscured performance metrics.
To break this vicious cycle, Ad-Shield focuses on protecting a minimal number of ads to promote a healthier digital ad ecosystem. This approach has garnered significant market interest, evidenced by the company’s 30%+ monthly growth since its launch and overwhelming demand from global publishers.
“We believe in the mission of Ad-Shield,” said Shane Shin, Founding Partner of Shorooq Partners. “With its innovative technology, Ad-Shield is becoming a key disruptor in the industry by providing publishers better and easier ways to engage with adblock traffic. This will create a new market that benefits digital publishers, advertisers, and consumers alike, around the world.”
With this new funding, Ad-Shield plans to expand its team and accelerate the market introduction of its new product. “We are emboldened every day by the publishers we meet and support,” added Dustin. “Most of them struggle to effectively manage adblock traffic, which continues to grow. We’re thrilled to help them focus on what they do best – generating quality content.”
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