Berline-based Zeotap has sold its third-party audience data business, Zeotap-Data, to adtech company Roqad, Europe’s largest identity aggregator and data onboarding provider.
Taking a step back, Roqad is best described as an identity augmentation business. The company claims 80% coverage of online addressable users in Europe and North America and operates a probabilistic identity graph—using statistical models and behavioral patterns rather than exact identifiers to connect users across devices and channels. This graph extends identity resolution beyond mobile advertising IDs, hashed emails, first-party cookies, Universal IDs, and CTV IDs. Its onboarding tools also link hashed emails, IP addresses, and mobile IDs for a more holistic view of users. In other words, Roqad specializes in expanding and enriching identity signals at scale.
With Zeotap-Data, Roqad gains a third-party data asset already integrated with Amazon DSP, The Trade Desk, and Adform, allowing advertisers to enrich their first-party data across major media-buying platforms. Zeotap-Data will continue to operate as a standalone brand—for now, The deal will roll out first in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France, with the US and APAC to follow in the coming months.
Why This Matters:
The Roqad–Zeotap deal highlights two key trends in the data market. First, consolidation is accelerating—Lotame was acquired last year—and the sale shows that third-party data remains valuable even as the industry emphasizes first-party solutions.
Second, the deal might also speak to the broader CDP market. CEO Elad Simon said the acquisition of his third-party data business “will allow [Zeotap] to focus 100% of our efforts as a company on our CDP customers and capabilities, which will strengthen our position as the leading CDP in Europe.” While CDPs feel like they’ve lost some traction in the U.S.—where many standalone products have been absorbed into larger ecosystems like Salesforce, Adobe, and LiveRamp—they are growing rapidly in Europe.
The European CDP market is projected to reach about $8 billion by 2030, with annual growth of 17–20%. GDPR and other privacy rules are a key driver, making CDPs that align natively with European privacy standards especially appealing. Zeotap recognizes that and is working to meet the moment.
Experts React:
Carsten Frien, Founder and CEO of Roqad, described the acquisition as one where the two companies “perfectly complement each other in addressing the critical challenges of privacy-compliant identity resolution, data onboarding, and data activation in digital advertising.” He added that Roqad is especially “excited about Zeotap-Data’s exclusive integration into the Amazon DSP.”
Our Take:
Remember when adtech M&A was everywhere? There’s been a noticeable lull since the wave of deals earlier this year, with attention shifting toward smaller AI funding rounds. Many of those larger M&A moves were likely initiated last year, and with today’s macroeconomic uncertainty—tariffs, shifting markets—we may be seeing a pullback. Still, it’s great to see M&A activity continue. As funding wanes (which is always the case in the latter half of the year), maybe we see an uptick in acquisitions, instead.
