Sep 14, 2021

. Seedtag , the leader in contextual advertising in EMEA and LATAM, has announced that it has secured $40 million in a Series B round led by Oakley Capital , a pan-European PE group with $4 billion of assets under management. Adara Ventures also participated in the round alongside existing investors All Iron Ventures . We first partnered with Seedtag in 2016 leading the investor syndicate, and we are delighted to continue working alongside the team as they use this round to cement their position as the leader in contextual advertising globally. AI-driven Contextual Ad intelligence: the future of advertising in a cookieless world Seedtag creates highly impactful and engaging solutions for relevant premium visual content, powering targeting and returns for top publishers and the finest brands. The company’s contextual AI allows brands to engage with consumers within their universe of interest on a cookie-free basis. Using machine learning, Seedtag allows advertisers to deliver their messages more effectively by associating their brands with specific contextual segments and publishers to take advantage of one of their most valuable assets: images. In the next few years, it is also expected that brands will no longer be able to leverage third-party cookies to reach target audiences. As a result, many are struggling to find reliable alternatives that help them understand consumer interests while targeting priority audiences. Without the use of cookies, Seedtag is best positioned to provide a deep understanding of consumers’ interests, build a contextual strategy based on data and gather a range of insights that can help brands improve their results. Building a 200+ strong team Seedtag was founded in Madrid in 2014 byAlbert Nieto and Jorge Poyatos, who saw an untapped opportunity to transform editorial images into unique advertising assets and left roles at Google to pursue a new venture together. Over the past year, Seedtag announced the appointment of three new members of its leadership team, as well as the acquisition of German contextual advertising specialist, Recognified, and Italian competitor AtomikAd. Today, Seedtag is a global company with 215 employees in more than nine countries, a 65% increase in employee headcount since 2020. A fast-growing, highly capital efficient model Seedtag stands as the contextual advertising market leader in both Europe and Latin America and ranks among the top five for market reach across Europe, with only Facebook and Google reaching a larger audience in some countries. The company continues to achieve significant growth following product development and improvement. Despite COVID-19’s impact, Seedtag reached revenues of $50 million, and a further 60% growth is forecasted for 2021 ($80 million). The team is now focused on growing into a global leader, scaling and consolidating its leadership in Europe while exploring expansion opportunities in the US. The Adara view: A powerful example of executing a global vision We recognise that businesses we initially invest in are likely to transform as they scale. However, by upholding their core principles and pillars, Seedtag’s explosive growth reflects a thoughtful evolution and serves as a powerful example of a team that sought to be the best solution in a global market and executed on that vision. Since our initial investment Seedtag has achieved T2D3 growth by deepening its core technology and continuously optimising its new market entry model. Whilst COVID-19 was an unexpected shock for many advertisers but resulted in positive side effects for Seedtag as it accelerated the demand for digital over other advertising channels. We’re excited for this next stage in Seedtag’s journey and congratulate the team on their remarkable success so far.