Advertising Startup StackAdapt Snags Massive $235M Round

Advertising technologies do not interest investors as they once did, however, when you mix in artificial intelligence they take note.

StackAdapt raised a $235 million growth round led by Teachers’ Venture Growth — the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan — with participation from Intrepid Growth Partners and four other unnamed investors.

The Toronto-based company is a multichannel programmatic advertising platform that uses AI and automation in its software to enhance capabilities and user experience.

“The challenges marketing teams face are vast and evolving rapidly,” said co-founder and CEO Vitaly Pecherskiy. “Much of the pressure to drive growth rests on their shoulders as they work to reinvent operations and discover new ways to reach customers effectively, profitably, and predictably. To help them stay ahead of the curve, we are relentlessly focused on building the most advanced, intelligent, and automated platform to make their success inevitable.”

This new round follows a $300 million investment from Summit Partners in 2022. Founded in 2014, StackAdapt has raised more than $500 million, per the company.

Advertising slowdown

Advertising tech companies rarely pique investor interest anymore. The domination of the industry by Big Tech and people’s changing tastes for how they digest content have all played a role.

StackAdapt’s round is the largest for an advertising startup since Madhive, a New York-based advertising software platform, raised $300 million from Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 2023.

Advertising startups raised less than $1 billion in venture last year, per Crunchbase data. In 2023, such startups raised only $1.3 billion.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman