Optable closes $20 million Series A financing

Optable, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) data collaboration platform and clean room solution designed for the advertising ecosystem, has announced that it has secured $20M USD in Series A financing from a syndicate of investors which includes Hearst Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Desjardins Ventures, Deloitte Ventures, asterX, and others.

The advertising ecosystem is undergoing a radical transformation in how audience data can be used as third-party cookies disappear, mobile IDs experience an overhaul, and new privacy legislation emerges, added the company. This creates an immediate need for new solutions to enable advertisers, publishers, and the entire adtech ecosystem to securely compare and leverage audience data to help plan, activate, and measure campaigns. Against this backdrop, Optable has experienced global demand for its solutions and will use the funds raised to expand its sales and marketing team to serve this need.

“Optable has made enormous progress in delivering a privacy-centric, transparent, and interoperable solution to the market," said Yves Poiré, co-founder and CEO, Optable. "Having such a great and diverse syndicate of strategic investors validates our approach. We look forward to collaborating with them to accelerate our expansion strategy and drive real results for our rapidly growing customer base across the globe."

Optable's co-founders - Yves Poiré, Vlad Stesin and Bosko Milekic - are long-time collaborators, with Optable being the second business they have founded together. Their last venture, AdGear, was acquired by Samsung Ads in 2016. Optable says it currently works with customers in Canada, the US, Europe, and Japan.

"Optable's innovative and privacy-centric approach to data collaboration is essential to help advertisers navigate the evolving digital advertising landscape," said Darcy Frisch, managing director and VP, Hearst Ventures. "We are thrilled to invest and support their mission to empower the industry with effective solutions as they continue to gain traction in the US market and beyond."

Optable and Hearst have also entered into a commercial agreement that will allow Hearst to amplify the value of their first party data through Optable's advanced data clean room approach. The collaboration will also enable interoperability with other data clean room solutions, allowing advertisers to benefit from a wider range of data sources.

Said Michael Nuzzo, VP, head of data solutions at Hearst Magazines: “With Optable's sophisticated technology, we can provide marketers increased performance by leveraging high-quality data to power planning, activation and measurement. This partnership will also offer our clients the ability to utilize their first-party data in a clean room environment and optimize their marketing efforts and better serve their customers."

Optable says the new capital will enable the company to scale up its global presence, technical talent, and product development, focusing on building new data collaboration solutions to address the needs of the industry.