Adbrain

Market position

Adbrain competed in the cross-device identity graph segment alongside Drawbridge, Tapad and Oracle's Crosswise, all of which also supplied identity-linking graphs into The Trade Desk's cross-device marketplace. Notion Capital described Adbrain as a leading provider of customer ID mapping solutions. The Trade Desk positioned the acquisition as giving advertisers an independent alternative to the walled gardens in cross-device targeting.

Adbrain positioned its multidimensional approach to identity — modelling people, households and devices rather than single device pairings — and its machine learning treatment of unstructured signals as the basis for combining scale with accuracy. The Trade Desk highlighted the deterministic nature of the data set and its combination with login data to create a proprietary graph.

Technology

Adbrain applies machine learning algorithms to contextualize unstructured data points across devices, people and households, producing a multidimensional identity graph intended to combine broad coverage with behavioural detail. Its investor describes the customer ID mapping technology as patent pending, and The Trade Desk characterized the acquired asset as a deterministic cross-device ID data set to be combined with login data to form a proprietary device graph.

Go-to-market

The company sold to digital marketers and their technology partners, distributing its graph through integrations with more than 100 marketing automation, analytics and ad buying/selling platforms, including presence in The Trade Desk's cross-device services marketplace from 2015. After the acquisition its website routes prospective customers to The Trade Desk.

Digital marketers, brands and the agencies that buy media on their behalf, plus marketing technology partners requiring cross-device identity resolution for targeting and measurement.

Geography

Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with additional offices reported in San Francisco and New York.

History

Founded in 2012 in London, Adbrain raised $1.5m in seed funding in July 2013 in a round led by Notion Capital with angel Anil Hansjee, followed by a $7.5m Series A reported in March 2014. In February 2015 it launched Cortex, described as a new breed of data intelligence. From 2015 its identity graph was offered through The Trade Desk's cross-device services marketplace. In February 2016 it raised a further $7.5m from Notion Capital, Octopus Ventures and new investor Cisco Investments to expand internationally, and appointed Jason Atlas as CTO. In October 2017 The Trade Desk acquired the company in its first-ever acquisition.

Risks & controversies

No controversies are reported in the sources. Sources note tension in the market between independent ad tech and walled gardens, and The Trade Desk's stated concern that deterministic data sets can become unavailable to the open ecosystem when acquired. Third-party database figures for employees and revenue are estimates and conflict with the 20-person headcount reported at acquisition.