Goldman Sachs Injects $30m into Innovid

By Dipo Olowookere

World’s leading video advertising platform, Innovid, has announced receipt of $30 million in pre-IPO funding from Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing group.

Innovid said it will use the additional capital to further its innovation and leadership in the connected TV (CTV) advertising technology market, as well as to expand its global footprint.

“Innovid continues to push the boundaries for what is possible with video advertising across all screens, especially on CTV,” said Zvika Netter, CEO and co-founder of Innovid. “Our technology platform is enabling new advertising models, including addressable and interactive ads, that are ushering in a new era of personalization and relevancy for CTV viewers. With this funding, Innovid will further advance its end-to-end CTV platform creating a more efficient workflow, while solving industry measurement challenges and expanding its global footprint to meet the evolving needs of its international client base of brands, media and creative agencies, and publishers.”

Innovid currently creates, delivers and measures video ads for the world’s largest brands, such as L’Oreal, Toyota, Bank of America, GlaxoSmithKline, Campbell’s and more.

With the rapid consumer adoption of CTV, Innovid works hand-in-hand with key publisher clients, including Hulu, Roku and Fox, amongst others, to re-imagine the advertising experience for the consumer. In partnership with its publishing clients, Innovid led the creation of two industry firsts: consumer choice-based engagement ads and live Internet TV campaigns.

As the first-to-market with CTV ad technology five years ago, Innovid currently reaches more than 75 million households and works across the largest footprint of connected and streaming devices including integrations with Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Samsung TV and more.

Further cementing its leadership in driving the CTV market, Innovid recently launched OTT COMPOSER, the premiere self-service authoring tool to create and publish experiences for connected TV advertising.

It solves a critical problem in today’s fragmented CTV landscape by better enabling advertisers to scale dynamic creative. Innovid was also the first in the industry to receive MRC accreditation for adherence to industry standards for video advertising measurement in a CTV environment.

“As an early mover in CTV with established inventory supply partners, Innovid is well positioned to capture the massive secular shift in CTV consumption,” said Hillel Moerman, head of Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing group. “Innovid has differentiated video advertising software and technology, and has the scale and the reach to succeed, with access to significant supply beyond CTV, including platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snap and others.”

The funding raise follows a successful year in 2018, where Innovid was named as a Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte’s 2018 Technology 500™ and recognized by Gartner as a company to watch in AdTech.

In addition to the funding, Holger Staude of Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing group will join Innovid’s prior investors from SEQUOIA, Newspring and Genesis on the company’s board.