A Madrid tech firm has acquired Manchester-headquartered Skyrise.
Taptap Digital says Skyrise complements its AI-powered location intelligence platform with one of the UK’s most advanced privacy-first audience design capabilities.
The combined offering enables advertisers to identify, activate, and measure audiences more effectively without relying on cookies or personal identifiers, delivering deeper insights and stronger business outcomes.
Skyrise will operate under its own brand as part of Taptap Digital. CEO Paul Barnard, who has led the business since 2023, will remain in his role alongside the existing management team.
The acquisition will see Skyrise founders Ian Vint and Michelle Vint – husband and wife – and Alex Petrie exit the business. The trio merged their businesses Regital and Skyrise Intelligence in 2023.
Over the past two years, Taptap has paired its organic operations in the UK and Brazil with successful entries into Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, alongside strategic partnerships in Ireland, South Africa, and most recently, the MENA region.
It is building toward further international expansion, including North America.
“The future of advertising lies in combining deep audience intelligence with increasingly intelligent and autonomous execution to deliver measurable outcomes within a privacy-first ecosystem,” said Álvaro Mayol, partner & CEO of Taptap Digital.
“By integrating Skyrise’s exceptional audience discovery capabilities into Taptap’s global infrastructure and our evolving AI and agentic capabilities, we are transforming how complex geo-contextual data is understood, activated, and measured at scale.
“Together, we will deliver market-leading omnichannel solutions that drive better outcomes for our clients while accelerating revenue across high-growth programmatic channels, particularly CTV (connected TV) and prDOOH (programmatic digital out of home).
“This transaction also strengthens our position in the UK and establishes a powerful platform for growth across EMEA and, ultimately, the US.”
Barnard added: “Joining forces with Taptap Digital allows us to rapidly scale our audience design methodology on a truly global stage.
“Taptap brings world-class engineering depth, an established international footprint, and a highly sophisticated AI infrastructure that will immensely benefit our clients and partners.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with the Taptap leadership team to steer this next chapter of integrated growth.”