Video ad tech company Teads has acquired UK-based firm Brainient
Teads
Brainient, which specializes in video and mobile ad creative, will be rebranded as Teads Studio.
The studio will help advertisers make their video ads interactive, such as assisting them in creating 360° and live formats, or adding functionality that allows users to buy a product.
Brainient also has technology that converts any landscape video to vertical, in order to fit mobile screens.
Emi Gal, Brainient's founder and CEO, will become the CEO of the new unit and will relocate to New York, where Teads has an office.
Bertrand Quesada, Teads CEO, declined to reveal the size of the transaction, but told Business Insider: "Brainient is a multi-million [dollar] company, executing thousands of campaigns every year."
The acquisition comes a month after Teads raised $47 million in debt financing. The company said at the time it would use the financing to fund acquisitions to "reinforce Teads' leading position in the video advertising industry."
Teads is known as the inventor of the outstream video advertising unit: video ads that appear within the content of an article and only autoplay when the ad is viewable on screen.
Quesada told us late last week: "We have built a true premium alternative to Facebook and YouTube at a time when companies are struggling to engage with consumers. You don't go to Facebook to watch video. The speed and way you engage with your Facebook feed is very different to the way you read articles.
"You can capture a lot more attention as a premium company than you can capture on a social feed. And also, bringing in personalized video and interactive elements, we are seeing a much better engagement rate, therefore brand recall and awareness and purchase intent are much better when the brands have decided to personalize [their ads]."
Earlier this year, rumors circulated around the ad tech community that Teads had been in talks to be acquired by public ad tech company Rubicon Project. We asked Quesada about the rumors.
He said: "We talk to many companies, very often. There are not many companies growing at the speed we are growing. We are growing at 50% year-on-year, we have scale, and a true differentiator: companies out there haven't embraced the video opportunity. We are in conversations with a lot of people and that's it, you know? We are having conversations with everyone."
When Business Insider contacted Rubicon Project about the Teads acquisition rumors in March this year, a spokesperson said the company did not comment on industry speculation.
Business Insider estimated earlier this year that Teads generated more than $140 million in net revenue in 2015. The firm has around 450 employees.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- An Ambani disruption in OTT: At just ₹1 per day, you can now enjoy ad-free content on JioCinema
- In second consecutive week of decline, forex kitty drops $2.28 bn to $640.33 bn
- SBI Life Q4 profit rises 4% to ₹811 crore
- IMD predicts severe heatwave conditions over East, South Peninsular India for next five days
- COVID lockdown-related school disruptions will continue to worsen students’ exam results into the 2030s: study
- India legend Yuvraj Singh named ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 ambassador