Audigent, the “2.0” data management platform (DMP) and leading edge “data agency” that has pioneered data-driven private marketplace deals (SmartPMPsTM and ContextualPMPsTM) through its cookieless HALOTM Identity product suite has announced that it has completed a $19.1 million Series B round of financing.
The funding will allow Audigent to continue its expansion as the premier first party data platform for the entertainment, sports, lifestyle and Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) eCommerce verticals as well as further its innovation as one of the leading next-gen data monetization platforms for major retail and CPG partners. The Go Philly Fund, a joint venture between Ben Franklin Technology Partners and EPAM Systems, Inc., has led the investment round with additional participation from both existing and new investors including: Broadscale Group, Raised in Space, MathCapital, Riverpark Ventures and others.
The investment brings Audigent’s total funding to $33.6 million since launch and will help the company broaden the reach of its cookieless PMP products and HALO IDTM while also aggressively expanding its sales and marketing efforts globally. Additionally, it will fuel the continued expansion of first-to-market data and inventory monetization tools for premium digital publishers. EPAM’s VP, Co-Head of North America, Regina Viadro will join the Board of Directors.
The Series B financing builds on an exciting year of growth for Audigent, highlighted by extraordinary demand for its SmartPMPTM and ContextualPMPTM products as well as growing adoption of its cookieless HALO IDTM by both content publishers and supply side platforms (SSP).
These PMP products have leapt past existing offerings in the market through the addition of a real-time deal optimization layer from the supply-side, a novel concept that delivers extraordinary value and efficiency to advertisers while bringing unique demand to publishers. Audigent’s roster of premium first party data partners and its distinct focus on data privacy are helping to usher in a new era of clean, verified opt-in data for advertisers, while providing an unparalleled data-driven media buying solutions for brands and agencies.
“While everyone else has been focused on the deprecation of the cookie itself, we have been focused on solving the problems this will actually create for media buyers,” said Drew Stein, CEO and Co-Founder of Audigent. “More specifically, as DMP segments lose their effectiveness, the real problem created here is that DSP’s will, in turn, lose their ability to address and buy targeted audiences against open exchange inventory. Solutions for this challenge are mission critical for media buyers as well as publishers.”
Importantly, Audigent is one of the first full stack identity solutions proven to tackle the industry’s biggest challenges by “productizing” its identity platform to help media agency and brand partners seamlessly target audiences and contextual data at massive scale against premium inventory. The platform simultaneously provides high fidelity audience scaling and privacy-centric data futureproofing for publishers, a primary concern as looming regulatory changes and platform policy updates create further uncertainty around the future of identity.
“Our buy side learnings give us a huge advantage in delivering the right data monetization tools and unique demand to our publisher partners,” said Jake Abraham, President of Audigent. “It’s time for an offering across the publisher’s stack that brings incremental revenue today and propels publishers into the cookieless future.”
With unique, exclusive data sets from major global publisher partners across the entertainment, lifestyle, sports and retail verticals, Audigent’s deep integrations with supply side platforms and their curation tools enable them to apply data “downstream” directly to the inventory versus applying it “upstream” through a DMP segment in the DSP – all delivered through a simple, easy-to-use PMP deal IDs. Battle-tested across tens of thousands of deals, SmartPMPsTM and ContextualPMPsTM are virtuous for buyers and sellers in that they provide a cookieless, data-privacy centric product that drives performance and value for brands and superior monetization for publishers.
“The performance and marketplace value to both media buyers and publishers is undeniable at this point,” says Stein. “AI bidders heavily favor Audigent’s deals because they are more fairly priced than using DMP data against open exchange inventory. Even if third party cookies aren’t going away tomorrow – there is no doubt that dynamic, curated PMP marketplaces are the future – especially in key channels like CTV.”
“We invested in Audigent over a year ago and have since developed a deep partnership to help them further their innovative tech stack,” said new Board member Regina Viadro from EPAM Systems. “Having built some of the largest data platforms globally, we found Audigent’s commitment to building a virtuous, cookieless future for data, was exactly the kind of vision we could get behind as their lead Series B investor and technology partner.”
Led by veteran ad tech and entertainment entrepreneurs Drew Stein (Dashbid, The Station/Music Playground/Diner), Brian Brater (Rawkus Records, Big Frame, UPROXX) and Matt Griffiths, Audigent is on a mission to make bold industry changes through their innovative platform and products. “First party audience data continues to be the rocket fuel that drives programmatic campaign success – especially when coupled with robust artificial intelligence and machine learning,” said Audigent’s Executive Chairman Brian Brater. “Having the financial resources of our Series B will not only help us to execute our virtuous vision around clean, transparent, privacy safe data, but also accelerate the global growth and scale of a cookieless solution that has been proven at scale with biggest brands and media agencies in the world.”
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