Scottish MarTech firm TVSquared has been snapped up in a £118 million deal.
The Edinburgh company, led by founder and CEO Calum Smeaton, will join NYSE-listed Innovid in a deal which includes approximately £74m in cash plus shares.
Innovid is an independent connected TV advertising delivery and measurement platform.
TVSquared’s solution can measure a television advert’s reach and frequency, who saw it, and additional audiences beyond the linear broadcast such as streaming. On the attribution side, it informs clients – whether media agencies or big brands – whether the advertising actually led to someone buying or downloading a product.
Its revenue for the full year of 2021 is expected to be between $20-22m.
Smeaton, who told our sister site TechBlast.co.uk last year that he took the business straight to the US to beat its rivals, will step down as TVSquared CEO and take on a strategy role in support of the integration with Innovid.
TVSquared’s president Jo Kinsella, who has been with the company almost since its inception, will join the Innovid executive team, reporting into CEO and co-founder Zvika Netter and leading its measurement business.
Complementary visions
“Innovid and TVSquared share complementary visions to transform TV measurement through a comprehensive view of audiences across all devices and platforms worldwide,” said Smeaton.
“Joining forces establishes a cross-platform measurement solution that maps one of the largest datasets of audiences, homes, and devices, at scale, across linear, CTV and digital video.”
Kinsella added: “By digitising cross-platform TV advertising, we believe this combination will give advertisers, across the ecosystem, everything they need to transact at scale.
“Together, TVSquared and Innovid are at the centre of TV’s transformation, meeting the market’s needs for a converged TV measurement alternative.”
The combined entity will represent buy-and sell-side customers and process billions of impressions events daily. The joint offering will include ad serving, creative personalisation and optimisation, outcomes and audience measurement, including reach, frequency and unique unduplicated reach, for the total TV and digital universe.
“In acquiring TVSquared, we aim to provide the most complete view of the total TV and digital universe through a scalable, currency-grade measurement platform,” said Netter.
“Additionally, we immediately accelerate and broaden our scope globally, as brands, agencies, publishers, and broadcasters on six continents rely on TVSquared to maximise reach, identify the right audiences and drive business growth with TV.
“As the market demands greater accountability, Innovid and TVSquared are reimagining the future of cross-platform TV measurement together.”
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of Innovid’s fiscal second quarter, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.