Samba TV
Founded 2008 Β· 10 known investors
Provider of television analytics and cross-screen advertising.
Also known as Flingo Β· Free Stream Media Corp. Β· Samba
Founders & leadership
Samba TV was founded in 2008 by Ashwin Navin and Alvir Navin.
Investors Β· 10
Also in the syndicate Β· 1
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements- Undisclosed amountventure debtDec 2025Source β
Source: company announcements and press reports β follow each round's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Samba TV (operating as Samba, developer entity Free Stream Media Corp.) is a media measurement and analytics company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Its software is embedded in smart TVs, set-top boxes, smartphones and tablets, and uses patented automatic content recognition (ACR) β video fingerprinting that reads on-screen pixels β to identify live, time-shifted and streaming content as well as video games played on the television. The service is activated by the user and is supported by interest-based advertising delivered on the TV or on other devices in the household. APIs and SDKs allow third-party mobile developers to build second-screen and on-TV experiences.
The company sells data, analytics and measurement products to advertisers, publishers and platforms, covering broadcast, cable, over-the-top and digital media. Products include the Samba TV Identity solution and its SambaID identifier, a real-time global TV viewership dashboard, Picture Perfect (AI-based picture optimization introduced January 2021), AI brand logo detection for TV (2023) and a political audiences platform for the 2024 U.S. election cycle. Following the October 2024 acquisition of contextual web intelligence firm Semasio, the company positions itself around first-party TV and web data, with Samba AI indexing media content and SambaID linking it to people, devices and households via a "Samba Knowledge Graph" used for planning, measurement and activation.
Consumer-facing, samba.tv offers a personalized TV discovery experience aggregating streaming services and live TV, with a privacy center, opt-out tools and CCPA controls; business solutions are hosted at samba.com.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Founder mafia
2 people who came through Samba TV went on to found or lead other companies.
Timeline Β· 29
launches, deals, and filingsReported raise of $60.0 million, with proceeds directed toward product development and market expansion.
$60M source β
Company timeline lists Samba TV becoming Samba, positioned around media intelligence powered by the Knowledge Graph.
Attain partnership to expand incremental measurement; OzTAM proof-of-concept described as a first initiative for Australia.
Acquisition of contextual web intelligence provider Semasio for undisclosed terms; positioned the company as owning both TV and web first-party data.
Madhive selected Samba TV as its ACR partner and FreeWheel as its preferred ACR partner; Captify integrated Samba TV technology.
Platform aimed at political advertisers for the 2024 U.S. presidential election and related candidate and legislative races.
Samba TV, Inc. filed an application for withdrawal of its Form S-1 registration statement with the SEC after deciding not to pursue the offering.
Filed an IPO registration statement in November 2021.
Interactive analytics dashboard with geographic and demographic viewership analysis, starting with the U.S., U.K., Germany and Australia.
Proprietary identifier within the Samba TV Identity solution, allowing marketers, publishers and platforms to transact across multiple currencies.
Twitter partnership focused on measuring the social network's effectiveness in driving tune-in.
Disney invested strategically to better understand TV viewership and engagement with advertising.
Launched a cross-screen advertising solution tied to real-time contextual awareness of what is on a smart TV screen within a household.
Company announced further platform features and named its interactive TV platform Samba.
Launched sharing to Facebook and Twitter directly from the TV.
Video fingerprinting technology to identify on-screen content and power cross-screen interactive TV apps on smart TVs.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
βΈResearch sources Β· 8
primary sources listed
- Samba TVsamba.tv Β· web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Samba TV do?
- Samba TV is a television and web data company providing viewership analytics, audience targeting and cross-screen advertising measurement.
- Who founded Samba TV?
- Samba TV was founded by Ashwin Navin, Alvir Navin in 2008.
- Who are Samba TV's investors?
- Samba TV's investors include August Capital, GFR Fund, Lauder Partners, Mind the Seed - MTS Fund, Sand Hill Angels, Align Ventures, Draper Associates, Horizon Technology Finance and 1 more.