News
DATADOME RAISES 2.5 MILLION EUROS FROM ISAI AND 50 PARTNERS
DataDome, publisher of the SaaS cybersecurity solution protecting websites from bot traffic, raises €2.5 million from ISAI and 50 Partners. This second round, which follows a €1 million round in December 2016, will enable the company to strengthen its presence on the European market, prepare for its expansion towards the US and Asian markets, and develop its data monetization offering. DataDome, a cybersecurity software publisher, today announced that it has raised 2.5 million euros from ISAI and 50 Partners Capital, with renewed support from its main business angels.
Founded in 2015 by Fabien Grenier and Benjamin Fabre, DataDome protects websites and APIs against bot traffic, which is at the root of the main security threats to online activities: content theft, account takeover, marketing fraud and denial of service. Over the course of two years, DataDome has secured prestigious clients and partners like PriceMinister, PagesJaunes, BlaBlaCar, Le Parisien and Amazon Web Services.
In December 2016, the company raised €1 million in its first round of funding from business angels, talented entrepreneurs, and technology and SaaS specialists.
The additional funds will enable DataDome to continue its R&D efforts, and to develop its sales and marketing operations. Target: signing contracts with major e-commerce, classified ads and media players in Europe. The international strategy will be supported by the development of the data monetization offering. By giving back to publishers the control over their data, DataDome allows them to manage data sharing and distribution on their own terms. The result: enhanced value of these strategic assets, made possible by DataDome’s tools and support.
“The data leaks that have made the news in recent months (Yahoo, Equifax, Uber …) illustrate what a major challenge protection of personal data and internet exchanges has become. With tens of thousands of websites and APIs that collect, host and transmit billions of data pieces at any one time, DataDome is operating on a worldwide market with great potential, as evidenced by our growth. This fundraising will enable us not only to gain a European dimension, but also to support our customers in their efforts to make the most of the data and content they produce“, says Fabien Grenier, co-founder and CEO of DataDome.
“In 2017, DataDome extended its technology to eleven data centers in order to stay closer to its customers. This allows us to identify bot traffic to websites and APIs in real time, no matter where they are hosted around the world. With this fundraising, we will pursue and intensify our R&D efforts, and always stay ahead of the evolution of threats, in particular those related to botnet attacks,” said Benjamin Fabre, co-founder and CTO of DataDome.
Jean-David Chamboredon, Executive Chairman of the ISAI fund, joins the board of directors alongside the founders, Francis Nappez (BlaBlaCar) and Sébastien Lucas (Oxalide): “50% of all web traffic is now generated by bots. Some bots are bad, some are friends, and others, once identified, may become partners. Combining technical know-how and business vision, DataDome offers publishers, in a broad sense, a new and relevant way to both secure and monetize this traffic. This solution can legitimately have global ambitions, and we are delighted to support the company’s internationalization.”
Jérôme Masurel, CEO of 50 Partners, confirms: “In the two years that 50 Partners has supported DataDome, we have seen the team’s tremendous execution capacity, the development of the DataDome technology, and the growing market interest for these protection solutions. We therefore enthusiastically renew our support, and will continue to contribute every available resource to the project’s development.”
About DataDome
DataDome enables its customers to leverage their data capital by protecting their online assets against bot traffic, which is at the root of the main security threats to online activities: content and data theft, account takeover, marketing fraud, and denial of service attacks. DataDome’s proprietary SaaS technology detects and filters this bot traffic in order to protect websites and APIs. The company maps thousands of bot operators, and offers tools for managing their activity in real time. This intelligent protection allows DataDome customers to regain control over their online content and data. DataDome helps them leverage their data by enabling them to turn this illegitimate traffic into business opportunities. With the global market as its horizon, DataDome intends to participate in the effort to make the internet safer for users and for businesses, and to enable publishers to better leverage their data and content. Fabien Grenier and Benjamin Fabre are DataDome’s cofounders. Entrepreneurs and business angels in the digital space since 2000, Fabien and Benjamin cofounded and managed TrendyBuzz, which was sold to Linkfluence in February 2014 to become the leader of social listening in France. Building on their experience from TrendyBuzz with using bots to crawl the web, they founded DataDome in 2015 in order to fulfill a simple, yet innovative vision: combining a highperformance cybersecurity solution protecting sites from automated traffic with business-centric tools to turn this traffic into business opportunities. They have since built a first-class team, with two other partners (Benjamin Barrier, CSO, and Olivier Trabucato, CFO) and about fifteen employees. They rely on a powerful network: the accelerator 50 Partners, the incubator LeVillagebyCA, the ISAI fund, and its business angels: Julien Leroy (AdVideum), Francis Nappez (Blablacar), Julien Coulon (Cedexis), Thibaud Elziere and Quentin Nickmans (eFounders), Christophe Poupinel (Ooreka), Sébastien Lucas and Maxime Kurkdjian (Oxalide), Justin Ziegler (PriceMinister), Patrice Thiry (ProwebCE), Quentin de Chivré (Shopmium), Godefroy Jourdan (Starting Dot), and Fabien Bourdier (TVtrip). For more information: https://datadome.co
About ISAI
Launched in 2010, ISAI is « the » French tech entrepreneurs’ fund, gathering more than 200 entrepreneurs across the world. Almost 150 successful entrepreneurs who have invested in ISAI, and more than 50 startup cofounders supported by ISAI, share the collective ambition to write great entrepreneurial stories. ISAI invests in differentiated projects founded by ambitious teams that it rigorously selects and actively supports. With more than €160M under management, ISAI Gestion can fund and support high-potential companies, whether they are at early stages (venture capital, €150k to €2M initial ticket with ability to follow on) or at more mature stages (growth equity, €1M to €15M investments).
About 50Partners
50 Partners is one of the main French accelerators, founded in 2012 by 50 successful IT entrepreneurs (Blablacar, LeBonCoin, ShowRoomPrivé, PriceMinister..) and aiming to support promising early-stage startups. The selected startups benefit from customized mentoring, access to a partner ecosystem (corporate, investors, media, schools, service providers), office space, and dedicated support for financing, business development and international expansion. The program represents a “for life” support system for the projects. 50 Partners supports projects in various areas of innovation: Fintech (ProcessOut, Silkpay), Deeptech and AI (Pandascore, Hull, Woleet), HR (Supermood, Brigad), Retailtech (Simplifield, Tokywoky, Qopius), Cybersecurity (Sqreen, DataDome, Seald), services (Ever, Littleworker, BirdOffice, SnapEvent), B2C (LeCloset, Selency, MagicMakers), etc.
Media contacts
DataDome
Jean-Dominique Quien - jean-dominique.quien@datadome.co - 06 21 09 28 43
ISAI / Kablé Communication
Marie Le Goff - marie.legoff@kable-communication.com - 07 87 96 12 74
Marina Thomas - marina.thomas@kable-communication.com - 06 69 42 03 47
ASSOCONNECT RAISES 2 MILLION
ASSOCONNECT RAISES 2 MILLIONS TO FACILITATE ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT
DATADOG ACQUIRES LOGMATIC.IO, ADDING LOG MANAGEMENT TO ITS FULL-STACK CLOUD MONITORING PLATFORM
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Datadog, the essential monitoring service for modern cloud environments, today announced the acquisition of Logmatic.io, a Paris-based Operations Data Platform for Log and Machine Events. The acquisition makes Datadog the first vendor to offer Infrastructure Metrics, Application Performance Monitoring (APM), and Log Management within a single platform. This provides DevOps teams with the tools necessary to detect, diagnose, and troubleshoot almost any problem in modern applications, significantly reducing the total cost of application monitoring and time to resolution in critical applications for enterprise customers.
Logmatic.io was founded in 2014 by Emmanuel Gueidan, Renaud Boutet, and Amirhossein Malekzadeh with the mission of helping organizations improve their software and business performance. The platform analyzes billions of data points daily with powerful log management and visualization tools and counts marquee brands such as Accenture, BlaBlaCar, Canal+, DailyMotion, and LVMH amongst its customers.
Earlier this year, Datadog also announced the general availability of Datadog APM (application performance monitoring), enabling organizations to monitor every part of their service-oriented applications from infrastructure to code.
“Integrating logs with the APM and Infrastructure monitoring we already provide is an important step in the evolution of the monitoring and analytics category,” said Olivier Pomel, Chief Executive Officer of Datadog. “Our new integrated platform will simplify the monitoring of modern applications that often span clouds, containers, IoTs and mobile devices. It will also unlock new A.I. and machine learning based capabilities to help customers manage and improve their applications and businesses.”
“Access to the right machine data coming from the very core of business operations will help drive success for our customers,” said Amirhossein Malekzadeh, Co-Founder and CEO at Logmatic.io. “Over the last 3 years at Logmatic.io, we saw a rapidly growing overlap in users and use-cases between log management and monitoring platforms. Becoming a part of Datadog was the best way to deliver a superior monitoring experience to the rapidly evolving market.”
“We’re already customers of both Datadog and Logmatic.io,” said Sylvain Barré, Vice President of Scale at Dailymotion. “Having a single analytics, monitoring, and alerting platform will dramatically improve our productivity.”
The Logmatic.io team has joined the Datadog Paris R&D office and an integrated log management solution is currently available to select customers. All current Logmatic.io customers will continue to have access to their existing services, and will have a direct path for migration upon the general availability of log management within Datadog.
About Datadog
Datadog is a monitoring service for hybrid cloud applications, assisting organizations in improving agility, increasing efficiency, and providing end-to-end visibility across the application and organization. These capabilities are provided on a SaaS-based data analytics platform that enables Dev, Ops and other teams to accelerate go-to-market efforts, ensure application uptime, and successfully complete digital transformation initiatives. Since launching in 2010, Datadog has been adopted more than 5000 enterprises including companies like Asana, eBay, PagerDuty, Stripe, Samsung, Target, The Washington Post, and Zendesk.
ContactsFor DatadogAdam LaGrecaSenior Public Relations Manageradam.lagreca@datadoghq.com
QUITOQUE RAISES €4 MILLION TO FURTHER ACCELERATE ITS GROWTH MIRRORING THE SUCCESS OF HELLO FRESH AND BLUE APRON
Quitoque, France’s leader in meal-kit delivery has just announced the completion of a €4 million ($4.3 million) round from leading funds 360 Capital, ISAI, NCI. Following in the footsteps of Germany’s HelloFresh or America’s Blue Apron, this fast-growing company has already transformed the routines of grocery shopping and home cooking for tens of thousands of families. The success story of this French start-up proves that a growing number of consumers find themselves caught between the desire to eat healthier and the lack of time to make it happen.
Quitoque is a revolutionary, hassle-free solution for anyone who wants to cook and eat healthy meals all week long. Subscribers receive a weekly box containing all necessary ingredients for cooking up to five meals in under 30-minutes. The recipes created by Chef Celine are tasty, simple, original and well-balanced. Quitoque ensures a varied and balanced diet, by picking only fresh and seasonal products from organic or sustainable farming. “Choosing Quitoque for your meals means consuming wisely, without wasting. It is a real alternative to daily shopping” explains Céline Nguyen, co-founder and Quitoque Chef.
Céline Nguyen, Etienne Boix and Grégoire Roty, three young and ambitious French entrepreneurs, realized that most French people felt confused and uninspired when shopping for food in supermarkets and ended up with the wrong products on their plates. Quitoque started offering its weekly meal-kits in September 2014, and has witnessed an exponential growth ever since. The firm now delivers 100,000 meal-kits per week, an impressive 10 times January 2016 figures. The company has also grown from merely 3 employees to 50 over the past 18 months. Earlier this year Quitoque launched its first TV advertisement to broaden its brand awareness. “Our success is built on flawless transparency and perfect quality of service, which are an integral part of our value-add and growth-strength”, explains Grégoire Roty, co-founder and Marketing Director.
Available across all of France, Quitoque positions itself as a new player in mass food distribution, and is now equipped with the adequate resources to match its ultimate ambition: to replace daily shopping for millions of families! The firm will invest the €4 million to drive its subscription growth and brand reputation. “We will continue improving our highly innovative technology and logistics. This will sustain our strong anticipated growth and allow us to build a reliable and cost-effective supply chain. “We have reinvented the mass food distribution supply chain”, says Etienne Boix, co-founder and Operations Director. Moreover, the service will be further enhanced to match our evolving client needs offering an increasing selection of products in an efficient and scalable way.
Following the first-round funding of €1,5 million in early 2016, these 4€ million are adequately planned to sustain Quitoque objectives as it enters its next chapter. “Quitoque’s model is extremely successful. Quitoque subscribers enjoy discovering a variety of healthy recipes, while eating quality products delivered at home for the best possible price. We are thrilled to support the spread of this new food consumption trend”, explains Jean-David Chamboredon, CEO of ISAI.
About Quitoque
Quitoque is the French leader for meal-kit delivery. The three start-up co-founders are committed to enabling French families to eat good food easily every day. Every week, Quitoque subscribers receive a box containing all the ingredients necessary to cook up to 5 meals. The products are carefully selected for their freshness and quality. The recipes are created by the Chef Céline Nguyen to be easy, original and well-balanced. The delivery is cost-free and available everywhere in France. Quitoque is growing fast and aims at replacing daily shopping.
About 360 Capital Partners
360 Capital Partners is an investment firm focused on multi-stage venture capital, growing companies from seed stage to exit. The firm currently has 300M€ total funds under management, and invests in France, Italy and across Europe from its offices in Paris, Milan, London and Berlin.
About ISAI
Launched in 2010, ISAI is “the” French tech entrepreneurs’ fund gathering more than 200 entrepreneurs across the world. Almost 150 successful entrepreneurs, who have invested in ISAI, and more than 50 startup cofounders supported by ISAI share the collective ambition to write great entrepreneurial stories.
ISAI invests in differentiated projects founded by ambitious teams that it rigorously selects and actively supports. ISAI means "different & remarkable" in Japanese.
ISAI likes digital business models with a progressive capital intensity: marketplaces, adtech/martech, SaaS/big data/AI...
With €160M under management, ISAI Gestion, authorized by French regulator AMF, can fund and support high potential companies at early stages (venture capital, €150k to €2M initial ticket with ability to follow on) or at more mature stages (growth equity, €1M to €15M investments).
About NCI
NCI is an investment company operating in Normandy and in Ile de France. For more than 15 years, NCI has been investing skilled resources and equity capital in the creation, the development and the transfer of companies.
With a double-digit growth track record, and about €200M under management (entrusted by public and private institutional investors), NCI strives to create sustainable value within its portfolio companies by reconciling finance, economic development and social welfare.
For more details: http://www.n-ci.com
PRESS CONTACTS
Quitoque :
Maud BUSSON
maud@quitoque.fr
+33 (0)1 58 80 80 16
+33 (0)6 12 59 06 36
360 Capital Partners :
Laura Roguetlaura.roguet@360capitalpartners.com+33 (0)6 60 31 17 02
ISAI :
Dimitri LECERFKablé Communication Financedimitri.lecerf@kable-cf.com+33 (0)1 44 50 54 72
PARIS-BASED DATABERRIES RAISES $16M TO BRING THE SOPHISTICATION OF ONLINE ADVERTISING TO OFFLINE RETAILERS
Round led by Index Ventures will enable European ad-tech leader to launch its solution in the US and strengthen technical lead.
Databerries, the performance-based mobile advertising platform for offline retailers, is today announcing a $16 million Series A round led by Index Ventures. The round comes after a Seed Round in December 2015, and includes existing investors ISAI and Mosaic Ventures, along with prestigious angels such as Pascal Gauthier (ex-COO at Criteo) and Greg Coleman (President at Buzzfeed and ex-President at Criteo).
Co-founded in 2014 by Benoit Grouchko (CEO, ex-Criteo), François Wyss (COO, ex-Google) and Guillaume Charhon (CTO & serial entrepreneur), Databerries enables brick and mortar retailers to use mobile ads to target consumers based on previously visited locations and determine which ads have resulted in store visits. This concept pioneered by Databerries and referred to as Real Life Targeting, brings, for the first time, the sophistication of online advertising to offline retailers.
Offline retailers spend more than $100 billion on advertising every year, relying largely on outdoor and other offline channels to increase store visits with limited ability to track the performance of their advertising campaigns. Databerries believes that much of that budget will shift in the future to mobile advertising that relies on location data to deliver precise targeting and measurement.
The Real Life Targeting solution is the most accurate location-based solution in the market. Using the data from Databerries, marketers can see exactly how many people visited a physical retail location after seeing a mobile ad, and they can optimize their campaign in real-time to maximize performance. Marketers can also set up new campaigns to target people that have visited their store already, or people who have visited the store of a competitor. This technology allows offline retailers to decrease the cost paid per physical visit and dramatically improve ROI on advertising spend.
Since launching in December 2015, Databerries now works with more than 100 brick and mortar retailers, such as Toys “R” Us and McDonald’s and has driven several million euros of revenue in its first year. The company has grown headcount from 4 to 40 in 12 months, with 40 percent of that growth in R&D.
"Retailers spend more than $100B every year in offline marketing (leaflets, radio, out-of-home, advertising, etc), without being able to accurately measure its efficiency. However, thanks to mobile devices, there is now a bridge between online and offline," said Benoit Grouchko, CEO of DataBerries. "Databerries offers retailers a traffic acquisition solution that works for offline marketing, but also leverages the online advertising standards the industry has become used to: accurate targeting, personalization, performance measurement and return on investment optimization. As a result, Databerries is leveling the playing field between pure ecommerce and brick and mortar."
"The U.S. is the largest advertising market in the world and we are bringing a solution that has been proven to work, and is unlike anything else available," adds François Wyss, COO & co-founder of Databerries, based in NYC and in charge of developing the US market.
“‘Half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don’t know which half’, goes the famous saying. Yet while most think that this phrase is now obsolete due to advancements in online advertising, it still holds true in the offline world, where retailers rely on a series of assumptions about consumer behaviour. Databerries removes this guesswork by giving offline players powerful tools with which to target mobile users, so they can benefit from a pay-for-performance model that online players have long enjoyed with Criteo,” explains Dominique Vidal, Partner at Index Ventures.
"Databerries meets an important need for Toys R Us, improving the ROI of our offline marketing. The use of Databerries technology allows us to target prospects according to the places they visit in the real world," adds Valerie Mwanba, Head of Online Acquisition at Toys “R” Us, the World’s leading family leisure, baby care and toy megastore with over 1500 stores in 33 countries.
"Databerries has successfully launched its product in Europe. We are pleased to welcome Index and take part of an ambitious international development plan," adds Jean-David Chamboredon, CEO at ISAI.
About Databerries
Databerries is a performance-based mobile advertising platform for offline retailers. Databerries enables brick and mortar retailers to use mobile ads to target consumers based on previously visited locations and determine which ads have resulted in store visits. This concept pioneered by Databerries and referred to as Real Life Targeting, brings, for the first time, the sophistication of online advertising to offline retailers . Co-founded in 2014 by Guillaume Charhon, François Wyss and Benoit Grouchko, Databerries has 40 employees in Paris and New-York.
THE BENEFITS OF AN OWNER BUY-OUT FOR DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURS
The recent announcement of the successful exit by French company Hospimedia from our Growth / LBO fund inspires me to make the case for a tool that remains little-known to digital entrepreneurs: OBO or Owner Buy-Out.
Naturally, those whose sole focus or ambition is a trade sale may wonder about the rewards of such an initiative. However, for hundreds of other entrepreneurs, an owner buy-out could be a remarkable step in their entrepreneurial career.
WHAT ARE THE BASIC FEATURES OF AN OBO TRANSACTION?
An OBO is a variation on the familiar LBO (Leveraged Buy-Out). It consists of buying out an entire company via a newly formed holding company, using i) a total or partial contribution (or roll-over) from the people who choose to continue the adventure (particularly founding managers), ii) leverage with little or no dilutive effect (bank debt, mezzanine financing, etc.), and iii) additional equity provided by a new financial investor (the sponsor).
It’s easy to see that with the right framework, an owner buy-out can contribute to achieving a number of goals:
Increase the capital interests of founding executives whose holdings may have been severely diluted in the past due to various venture capital rounds. An OBO is also the perfect tool for founding executives looking to take back majority ownership in the company they created.
In addition, it allows founding executives to cash out part of their investment in a company in which they may have too much of their personal wealth. I must insist on the fact that, contrary to popular belief, a partial cash-out may be quite beneficial for entrepreneurs. Indeed, the ability to take risks tends to decline over the years, and such an initiative may reinvigorate entrepreneurial intrepidity.
It allows traditional business angels or venture capital funds to exit under favourable financial conditions (often with no reps & warranties, or at least with no cash escrow– a word to the wise…)
Moreover, it is clearly a unique opportunity for non-founding executives to take a stake in the company that they are helping to grow, and therefore to play a full-fledged role in future value creation.
However, an OBO is first and foremost an opportunity to take a fresh look at the company’s strategy and lay out a 4 to 5-year growth plan that federates the different stakeholders.
Last but not least, an OBO often goes hand in hand with a management package implemented by the sponsor that aims to offer founding executives generous capital-based compensation in the event that the transaction exceeds its targets. To offer a concrete example, an LBO fund like the one I manage aims for lower returns (typically 2.5-3x) than my colleagues in the field of venture capital (10x): management packages can thus seem very attractive to executives, who are more likely to outperform at that level…
A COMMON QUESTION: “WHO DOES AN OBO APPLY TO?”
BEFORE EXPLORING THE OBVIOUS FINANCIAL QUESTIONS, IT IS ESSENTIAL TO ASSESS WHETHER THE FOUNDING EXECUTIVES AND MANAGEMENT TEAM TRULY SUPPORT SUCH AN INITIATIVE: THEY MUST BE DEEPLY CONVINCED THAT THE PROJECT COULD BE A CONSIDERABLE SOURCE OF VALUE CREATION WITHIN FOUR OR FIVE YEARS, AND THAT THE TIME IS NOT RIGHT TO SELL (EVEN IF SOME SHAREHOLDERS EXPRESS A DESIRE TO EXIT). THEY MUST ALSO DEMONSTRATE STRONG AMBITION AND WILLINGNESS TO CONSIDER AVENUES FOR GROWTH THAT HAVE YET TO BE SERIOUSLY EXPLORED (E.G. THROUGH ACQUISITIONS OR INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION).
FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF FOUNDING EXECUTIVES WHO HAVE NEVER HAD PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS AS SHAREHOLDERS IN THEIR COMPANIES, BRINGING IN A FUND LIKE THE ONE I MANAGE MAY MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE IN THE FABRIC OF THE COMPANY REGARDING KEY SUBJECTS SUCH AS STRUCTURING, BACKING FOR EXTERNAL GROWTH OR, TO MENTION JUST ONE MORE ASPECT, MANAGING AN EXIT PROCESS WITH OPTIMAL VALUATION.
THAT SAID, CLEARLY WE MUST ASK OURSELVES IF A GIVEN COMPANY IS SUITED TO AN OBO. THE LITERATURE ON LBOS TEACHES US THAT A COMPANY’S BUSINESS MUST BE STABLE AND REGULAR TO GENERATE PREDICTABLE AND RELATIVELY SIGNIFICANT CASH FLOWS. THE “L” IN LEVERAGED REMINDS US THAT THE DEBT HAS TO BE REPAID…
NATURALLY, THESE SAME CRITERIA MUST BE MET FOR A SUCCESSFUL OBO, BUT IN REALITY SOME MAY PROVE INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE RATHER VOLATILE NATURE OF THE DIGITAL MARKET.
AT ISAI, WE HAVE WORKED LONG AND HARD TO ADAPT LBO PRACTICES TO THE SPECIFICITIES OF THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM, WITH AN EYE TO HELPING PURE PLAYERS BOASTING STRONG GROWTH CARRY OUT OBOS, EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT VERY PROFITABLE. ONE CENTRAL NOTION IS THAT THE LEVERAGE IN THE CASE OF AN OBO IN THE DIGITAL SECTOR CAN AND MUST BE STRUCTURED DIFFERENTLY THAN THAT OF A CLASSIC LBO. IN OTHER WORDS, VALUE STEMS FROM GROWTH RATHER THAN LEVERAGE: THE ABILITY TO INVEST VERY QUICKLY IS ESSENTIAL IN THE EVENT OF RAPID CHANGES TO THE MARKET. WITH THAT IN MIND, IT BECOMES NECESSARY TO CONSIDER REDUCED LEVERAGE THAT WOULD NOT DRAIN CASH FLOWS (E.G. BY USING MEZZANINE FINANCING WITH A BULLET PAYMENT AT MATURITY RATHER THAN AMORTIZED SENIOR DEBT).
DON’T GET ME WRONG: NOT ALL COMPANIES IN THE DIGITAL SECTOR ARE CUT OUT FOR A “GROWTH” OBO. NONETHELESS, OUR ECOSYSTEMS WOULD CERTAINLY DO WELL TO LOOK MORE CLOSELY AT THIS TOOL.
AT ISAI, AROUND HALF OF THE TRANSACTIONS IN OUR GROWTH / LBO FUND FOCUS ON GROWTH OBOS. THIS WAS THE CASE FOR HOSPIMEDIA IN PARTICULAR. THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT THE OBO HELPED THIS SMALL PURE PLAYER WRITE A REMARKABLE GROWTH STORY AND PREPARE A STRATEGIC EXIT THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN INCONCEIVABLE A FEW YEARS AGO. THE EXPERIENCE AND SECURITY OF A PROFESSIONAL FUND, ITS EXPERTISE IN FINANCING SOLUTIONS AND, IN THE CASE OF ISAI, A UNIQUE UNDERSTANDING OF THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM THANKS TO ITS 130 ENTREPRENEURS-LPS, CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE.
IN THE END, AN OWNER BUY-OUT MAY NOT BE SUITED TO YOUR CASE, BUT YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BY ASKING YOURSELF THE QUESTION. FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME AT : MARTINI@ISAI.FR
FREEWHEEL STRENGTHENS ITS PROGRAMMATIC VIDEO CAPABILITIES WITH THE ACQUISITION OF STICKYADS.TV
FreeWheel announces acquisition of StickyADS.tv, a leading video SSP, bringing together best in-class traditional and programmatic sales capabilities, architected for the TV industry.
(NEW YORK, NY– May 9, 2016) - FreeWheel, a Comcast Platform Services company and leading provider of premium video ad management solutions for the world’s largest media and entertainment companies, today announced the acquisition of StickyADS.tv, a leading video supply-side platform (SSP), that offers premium publishers software to build, run and operate their own private exchange. The acquisition will create an end-toend solution enabling clients to manage video inventory across all screens and access demand from any demand channel, while ensuring a brand-safe, TV compliant experience.
“We are very excited to make this announcement. We are bringing together two companies who deeply understand the opportunities for the ‘New TV’ ecosystem on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Doug Knopper, coFounder and co-CEO, FreeWheel. “StickyADS.tv has been a preferred SSP partner since September 2015 and in that short time we have been thoroughly impressed by both the quality of their platform and the knowledge of their team.”
Since its inception, FreeWheel has remained steadfast in its responsibility to provide industry leading technology solutions for TV Programmers/Networks, MVPDs and select Digital PurePlays to unify their advertising businesses across screens and currencies and make automation work safely for premium video across all environments.
The addition of StickyADS.tv strengthens FreeWheel’s capabilities to deliver an end-to-end automated ad technology platform that enables publishers to maximize monetization of their own video inventory across traditional direct sold and market demand sources while ensuring full control, compliance and creative safety.
“Our clients’ need to support automated sales has drastically accelerated over the last 18 months. We believe StickyADS.tv brings best-in-class SSP technology, specifically their focus on private exchange capabilities that put the publisher in control. We believe the combination of our platforms will deliver the solutions our clients need to thrive,” said James Rooke, Chief Revenue Officer, FreeWheel. StickyADS.tv, headquartered in Paris, supports the advertising businesses of some of the biggest broadcasters in Europe, including TF1, France Télévisions, and M6. In addition, StickyADS.tv powers the advertising business of other premium publishers like Spiegel, Corriere della Sera, The Economist, and La Place Media, and manages over 90+ server-to-server buy side connections including all the market-leading Demand Side Platforms (DSPs).
“We are exceptionally excited to join FreeWheel and the Comcast Platform Services family. We are convinced that the combination of our companies will benefit our respective client bases, most notably the largest TV broadcasters,” said Hervé Brunet, CEO & Co-founder at StickyADS.tv. “Our focus on a private exchange, serverside architecture is perfectly aligned with FreeWheel’s technology in addressing the specific needs of premium publishers.” Acquired by Comcast in 2014, FreeWheel works in concert with other Comcast Platform Services portfolio companies in unifying technologies to power the ‘New TV’ ecosystem.
About FreeWheel
FreeWheel’s superior end-to-end technology, premium marketplace, and best in market advisory services power the advertising businesses of the largest media and entertainment companies in the world, including AOL, DIRECTV, NBC Universal, and Turner in the U.S., and Sky and Channel 4 in Europe. From our unique position at the center of the premium video economy, we enable our clients to unify audiences across desktop, mobile, OTT, and traditional STB devices, and profitably monetize their content. Headquartered in San Mateo, with offices in New York, London, and Beijing, FreeWheel stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information please visit www.freewheel.tv, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About StickyADS.tv
StickyADS.tv is a multiscreen video ad tech company whose mission is to help premium publishers embrace programmatic video, in a controlled and totally transparent manner. StickyADS.tv’s publisher-controlled platform allows publishers to build, run and operate their own video private exchange across web, mobile, and IPTV. The main benefit for publishers is simple: ability to monetize their video content directly with their clients - removing intermediaries -in order to better control their margin. In addition, StickyADS.tv’s exclusive analytical insights, available through the platform, further contribute to maximize video inventory value to its full potential across all screens. Founded in 2009, StickyADS.tv is the leading private exchange software technology, powering 150+ private exchanges controlled by major TV broadcasters, large media groups and premium syndicators. In 2015, StickyADS.tv secured a ranking among the fastest growing technology companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA 2015. StickyADS.tv’s reach is global - more than 7,000 websites in 150 countries worldwide - with regional teams in the US, Europe and more locations coming soon. For more information, please visit www.StickyADS.tv.
COOKIN’THEWORLD DEVIENT QUITOQUE ET LÈVE 1,5 MILLION D’EUROS
Cookin’theworld , the French leader in homedelivered food&recipes boxes (more than 200.000 delivered meals in 2015), raises 1,5 m€ to accelerate its development on the French market and changes its name to QuiToque