Teachers love programmatic.
Canadian DSP StackAdapt announced today that it has raised an eye-popping $235 million from Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, with participation from Intrepid Growth Partners and a few others.
With this latest funding round, StackAdapt has officially raised more than half a billion dollars. In 2022, Summit Partners invested $300 million in the company. That money appears to be fueling growth, as StackAdapt now operates in 19 markets globally with over 1,300 employees.
Why This Matters:
Give StackAdapt its flowers! The company has consistently been highly rated by users on G2, a platform that doesn’t get enough recognition from adtech companies. G2 is often viewed as more of a credibility builder for B2B martech and salestech, but clearly, StackAdapt’s customers are happy with both the platform and the company.
This deal seems to be driven by a few key factors:
AI – In the announcement, AI is cited multiple times. “Intrepid is thrilled to make StackAdapt its first investment. Vitaly, Yang, and their team have built a remarkable company that highlights the tremendous potential of AI,” said Mark Machin, Managing Partner and Founder of Intrepid. StackAdapt’s AI capabilities align with what you’d expect from a DSP—targeting and personalization, DCO, and contextual targeting. It will be interesting to see what they build next, as the release states the investment will help StackAdapt “rapidly scale its research and development” and “increase innovation capacity.”
Martech – Unlike some other DSPs, StackAdapt appears to have a strong martech play, particularly in B2B. The company offers an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) solution and works with clients like SentinelOne and Opayo. The release also highlights marketing tech as a focus: “This capital raise marks a pivotal milestone for StackAdapt as it continues to expand its footprint in programmatic advertising technology while expanding into marketing technology.” That’s a useful differentiator in a crowded DSP market. (It probably explains the G2 love, too.)
Experts React:
You have to quote the CEO when he lands a raise of this size. (It’s the least we can do.)
“The challenges marketing teams face are vast and evolving rapidly. Much of the pressure to drive growth rests on their shoulders as they work to reinvent operations and discover new ways to reach customers effectively, profitably, and predictably,” said Vitaly Pecherskiy, Co-founder and CEO of StackAdapt. “To help them stay ahead of the curve, we are relentlessly focused on building the most advanced, intelligent, and automated platform to make their success inevitable.”
Our Take:
We covered StackAdapt last year—an interesting DSP. It would be worthwhile to understand the size of their typical customer. Are most clients B2C? What’s the B2B split? How big is their U.S. business? All of these are important questions, but for now, hats off to the company for this massive raise.
(Also, wait a minute, didn’t we see some adtech funding yesterday? We are so back.)
