While the United States and Canada stand out from prices between the two countries, a technological company based in Toronto announces a large part of funding led by local venture capital. StackadaptA programmatic advertising startup, says that it has raised $ 235 million in equity funding, with the growth of the teacher business (TVG) – the investment branch of the Ontario teachers’ pension plan – Manager The growth lap.
Intrepid Growth Partners, a company based between Toronto and London, also participates, as well as four other investors who are not appointed.
Funding is significant for both its size and its objective.
In terms of size, it is one of the largest financing rounds for a Canada startup to date – although it is not the biggest. More recently, Fintech Clio raised $ 900 million; Cohere raised $ 500 million and Téstorrent raised $ 700 million, every year.
The financing of Canadian startups largely reflects the trends that take place on other markets. The total number of agreements in 2024 The previous year was broken, companies working in the field of artificial intelligence taking a disproportionate part of what was invested.
Stackadapt, who describes himself as a company that “exploits the power of AI”, is undoubtedly part of the trend. The company was launched in 2014 and was more or less cultivated as a quiet business. It was until 2022, when it took an investment of $ 300 million in Summit Partners. Pitchbook data Indicates that at least some of these $ 300 million took place in the form of a secondary investment. From what we understand, it was a minority investment, which would put the company’s assessment at more than $ 600 million.
The company does not disclose the evaluation with this current tour.
The size of this tower is not only talking about the size of the company today, but also how it finances the next step in its growth with local support.
Programmatic advertising has become, in fact, the building block of how all digital advertisements work these days, representing more than 90% of the market, the reason that gives marketing specialists a more efficient means to measure the operation of their ads and to whom these announcements are presented; And this gives publishers a more automated way to offer a larger volume of ads against their content.
In the case of Stackadapt, the company offers customers in different commercial companies – for example, political campaigns, retailers, B2B, travel, health care and financial services – and its inventory includes native advertising (content Sponsored), display, video, connected television, audio, games and more.
Developments such as the rise of AI (as well as other types of automation) have moved the landscape of programmatic advertising, leading to potentially higher incidents of advertising fraud. Other problems with which programmatic advertising is faced more difficulties in controlling the security of the brand and data protection, given the amount of data used to supply its targeting of ads.
This is the challenge but also the opportunity for companies like Stackadapt.
“”After the lulls of 2022-2023, companies focus on growth and the increase in their investments, “said Vitaly Pecherskiy, the CEO who co-founded the company with Yang Han, and Illdar Shar, in a statement in Techcrunch. “That said, growth at all costs is no longer the priority. Companies are looking for solutions to advance their activities while prioritizing profitability through automation and AI. Consequently, we see a strong demand for our product. »»
Stackadapt, he said, built his AI on “a decade of experience in analysis of advertising traffic models and by understanding their development”, which he uses to combat advertising fraud and Bot traffic.
“We are proud to support Stackadapt, a main Canadian technology business, on its trajectory to become the world leader in end -to -end advertising on AI,” said Rick Prostko, principal TVG managing director, in a press release. “The company has been able to demonstrate coherent growth and profitability while creating the future of advertising and marketing technology. We were impressed by their exceptional team, their visionary leadership and their relentless accent on the service of customer value. »»