Eight major sectors and 29 financing and M&A deals have pieced together a new landscape for the advertising industry in the first half of the year.
In the first half of 2025, the buzz in the advertising industry didn't lie under the spotlight of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity but was buried in a series of financing announcements and merger news. The growth rate of advertising budgets was mediocre, and CMOs' KPIs still closely focused on ROI. However, capital was betting on another dimension: the infrastructure of digital marketing.
During this six - month period, StackAdapt secured $235 million to further strengthen its programmatic advertising engine; on the merger lists of WPP and Publicis, names like InfoSum, Lotame, and Captiv8 appeared; new players Superscale and UpscaleAI attempted to replace traditional marketing processes with generative AI.
If the advertising industry is compared to a machine, then creativity, media, and measurement used to be scattered gears that required manual calibration and operation.
Now, these gears are being reorganized. Data has become the axis, AI is the new power source, and CleanRoom, retail media, and CTV have formed new touchpoints.
In the first half of 2025, the investment and financing in MarTech and AdTech have been replacing the engine of this machine.
From the 29 investment, financing, and merger events in the first half of the year, eight clear evolutionary paths can be seen:
Programmatic & Media Operating System: StackAdapt's financing and the merger of Outbrain and Teads redefine the underlying capabilities of advertising placement;
CTV and DOOH: The financing of tvScientific and T - Mobile's acquisition of VistarMedia promote the digitalization of television and outdoor advertising;
Data/Identity/CleanRoom: The mergers of InfoSum and Lotame make privacy and security a competitive threshold;
AI Creativity and Marketing Automation: Superscale, UpscaleAI, and ManyChat rewrite the logic of advertising production with generative AI;
Creator Economy and Social Advertising: The capital actions of Captiv8, ShopMy, and Whalar transform influencer marketing into SaaS infrastructure;
Retail Media and E - commerce Advertising: Button, Fermat, and Tracksuit connect advertising and transactions, promoting "content as sales";
Content and Experience Delivery: The acquisitions of Amplience and Havas complete the last mile of brand digital experience;
Regional Integration and Agency Groups: The merger of Omnicom and IPG and LLYC's local mergers change the service landscape;
01 Programmatic & Media Operating System
In the early days of the advertising industry, programmatic trading aimed to "buy faster and cheaper".
However, by 2025, the pain points have shifted to the system level. When operating across multiple channels, brands still face problems such as scattered accounts, fragmented attribution, and the disconnection between creativity and advertising placement. What brands need is no longer a single DSP but a media operating system that can integrate cross - screen media scheduling, dynamic creative management, and privacy - secure data collaboration.
This demand has been clearly verified in the capital market: StackAdapt secured $235 million in financing to further strengthen its cross - channel programmatic capabilities; Mediaocean's acquisition of Innovid integrated CTV, creative personalization, and cross - screen measurement into a unified engine; Liftoff brought in General Atlantic to upgrade CortexAI to a core operating system; tvScientific received $26 million, betting on "the performance - based TV advertising"; and the merger of Outbrain and Teads aimed to build the largest integrated advertising platform on the open Internet.
These actions point to the same trend: Programmatic advertising is no longer just a tool for buying traffic but the core of the marketing operating system. The next stage of competition will shift from "who has more resources" to "who can compress the closed - loop of creativity, advertising placement, data, and transactions into a single operating interface".
1. StackAdapt completed a $235 million financing round to expand its global layout
On January 4, 2025, the programmatic advertising platform StackAdapt announced the completion of a $235 million financing round, led by Teachers’ Venture Growth, a Canadian pension fund. After the investment, its valuation was approximately $2.5 billion. StackAdapt currently covers multiple industries such as e - commerce, retail, and finance. The platform's functions include cross - channel advertising placement, audience modeling, and AI optimization. The funds from this round will be used for researching and developing privacy - secure data collaboration technologies and expanding the market in Europe and the Asia - Pacific region, promoting the upgrade from a DSP to a full - stack advertising operation platform.
2. Mediaocean acquired Innovid to unify creative and advertising placement management
In January 2025, Mediaocean announced the completion of the acquisition of Innovid for approximately $500 million. After the integration, Mediaocean will provide advertising management services covering CTV, desktops, and mobile devices, including dynamic creative generation and cross - screen measurement. This transaction enables advertisers to complete budget allocation and creative deployment on the same interface, reducing the costs associated with switching between multiple platforms. The merged system plans to achieve full API interface docking by the end of 2025.
3. Liftoff received strategic investment and its valuation increased to $4.3 billion
On May 5, 2025, the mobile advertising platform Liftoff announced that it had received strategic investment from General Atlantic, and its latest valuation reached $4.3 billion. Blackstone continued to hold a controlling stake. The funds from this round will be used to enhance the application of the CortexAI engine in programmatic optimization and accelerate global expansion. Liftoff's services cover app growth, monetization, and performance optimization, and its clients include international brands such as Amazon and PayPal. The company is evaluating technological expansion in the fields of creative automation and attribution analysis.
4. tvScientific received $26 million in Series B financing, with Roku participating in the investment
On February 3, 2025, tvScientific announced the completion of a $26 million Series B financing round, led by New Road Capital Partners, with Roku participating in the investment as a strategic shareholder. tvScientific focuses on the programmatic purchase of CTV and linear TV advertising. Its core functions include advertising placement automation, real - time optimization, and cross - platform attribution. The funds from this round will be used to improve the advertising measurement system, launch incremental conversion verification tools, and expand the technical interfaces with streaming platforms. tvScientific plans to provide advertisers with more transparent data on the effectiveness of TV advertising placement by the end of 2025 to improve the efficiency of budget allocation for this medium.
5. Outbrain and Teads completed their merger, forming a new company, Teads Holding
In February 2025, Outbrain announced the completion of the acquisition of Teads. The two companies merged to form Teads Holding Co., which was listed on the NASDAQ in June, with a latest market value of approximately $2.4 billion. After the merger, the platform will integrate native advertising and programmatic video advertising placement and add an AI - based creative optimization module. Its services cover the global content publisher network and more than 50 Fortune 500 brands.
02 Traffic Entries: CTV Connected TVs and DOOH Digital Outdoor Advertising
In the past decade, the focus of digital advertising has been on the small screens of mobile phones. However, television and outdoor advertising, these "old - fashioned" media, still account for a large proportion of advertising budgets, but they lack precision and real - time optimization capabilities. Brands have always faced a dilemma: television still attracts a considerable number of people, but its ROI cannot be verified as easily as that of digital advertising; outdoor advertising has wide exposure coverage but cannot be fully integrated with the digital chain.
In 2025, this situation is changing. T - Mobile spent $600 million to acquire VistarMedia, combining the operator's first - party location data with 1.1 million digital screens, bringing audience - level advertising placement capabilities to DOOH. tvScientific completed a $26 million financing round, bringing in Roku as a strategic shareholder to promote the performance - based CTV advertising. In addition, UpscaleAI raised $6 million in its seed round to research and develop a CTV creative and automated advertising placement engine based on generative AI, reducing the production and optimization costs of video advertising.
The digitalization of TV advertising and outdoor media is no longer simply a "replacement of traditional media with digital screens" but a deep integration with programmatic purchasing, real - time measurement, and dynamic creative generation, rewriting the logic of "offline reach".
6. T - Mobile acquired VistarMedia and entered the digital outdoor advertising field
In January 2025, T - Mobile announced the completion of the acquisition of VistarMedia for $600 million in cash. VistarMedia is a leading global programmatic platform for digital outdoor advertising (DOOH), with a network covering more than 1.1 million digital screens and business operations in North America and Europe. This acquisition combines T - Mobile's user data with Vistar's screen resources, providing advertisers with precise advertising placement based on location and audience characteristics and supporting the real - time bidding model. T - Mobile said that this transaction will accelerate the synergy between DOOH and mobile advertising, enabling brands to achieve more precise budget allocation in cross - scenario marketing.
7. tvScientific completed a $26 million financing round to strengthen the performance of TV advertising
On February 3, 2025, tvScientific announced the completion of a $26 million Series B financing round, led by New Road Capital Partners, with Roku participating in the investment as a strategic shareholder. The company focuses on the programmatic purchase of CTV and linear TV advertising, with core functions including advertising placement automation, real - time optimization, and cross - platform attribution. The funds from this round will be used to improve the advertising measurement system, launch incremental conversion verification tools, and expand the technical interfaces with streaming platforms. tvScientific plans to provide advertisers with more transparent data on the effectiveness of TV advertising placement by the end of 2025 to improve the efficiency of budget allocation for this medium.
8. UpscaleAI received $6 million in seed financing to develop a CTV automated advertising placement engine
On May 12, 2025, UpscaleAI announced the completion of a $6 million seed - round financing, led by NVP Capital. UpscaleAI's product, UpscaleStudio, combines generative AI with the CTV advertising process, supporting automated creative generation, real - time advertising placement, and performance optimization, aiming to solve the bottlenecks of production costs and manual operations in brand video advertising placement. The company said that the funds from this round will be mainly used for technological iteration and market expansion, and it plans to cover the North American and European markets within the next 12 months.
03 Data/Identity/CleanRoom
In the post - Cookie era, the biggest challenge in the advertising industry is not "lack of traffic" but "lack of identity". Brands have first - party data, and media platforms have content and reach, but data collaboration between the two is isolated by privacy regulations and security risks.
The traditional DMP can no longer solve this problem. The industry needs a new set of infrastructure that can achieve cross - party matching and protect data privacy within a compliant framework.
In the first half of 2025, investment and merger activities were clearly concentrated in this direction.
WPP's acquisition of InfoSum incorporated CleanRoom technology into GroupM's data strategy; Publicis' acquisition of Lotame directly expanded the Epsilon database to 4 billion profiles and added identity resolution and privacy computing capabilities; Optable completed a $20 million financing round to further strengthen secure collaboration and encrypted matching; at the same time, Supermetrics acquired Relay42, combining CDP technology with the data integration platform in an attempt to connect data management and marketing activation.
Data is no longer the "fuel" in the advertising chain but the "operating logic" of the entire system. In the future, CleanRoom and AI decision - making engines may become the foundation of every advertising group and MarTech platform.
9. WPP acquired InfoSum to strengthen privacy computing and data collaboration
In April 2025, WPP announced the completion of the acquisition of the UK data collaboration platform InfoSum for approximately $63 million. InfoSum is known for its CleanRoom technology, which enables brands, media, and retailers to conduct audience matching and modeling without sharing raw data. This acquisition will integrate InfoSum into the GroupM data ecosystem and plans to deeply integrate it with WPP's Choreograph platform to build a privacy - first architecture for advertising placement and marketing measurement. The company said that in the future, it will focus on developing cross - channel collaboration APIs to meet the compliance requirements of different markets.
10. Publicis acquired Lotame, doubling the size of the Epsilon database
In March 2025, Publicis Groupe announced the completion of the acquisition of the data technology company Lotame. The transaction amount was not disclosed. Lotame focuses on identity resolution, audience modeling, and privacy - secure solutions. This merger will increase the size of the Epsilon database to 4 billion profiles and add identity resolution and privacy computing capabilities. Publicis said that this move will enhance customers' capabilities in cross - screen advertising placement, personalized marketing, and precise measurement and plans to combine Lotame's identity resolution technology with Epsilon's AI engine to optimize advertising reach in the post - Cookie environment.
11. Optable completed a $20 million Series A financing round to promote privacy - secure collaboration
On January 27, 2025, the data privacy management platform Optable announced the completion of a $20 million Series A financing round, led by Telus Global Ventures. The funds from this round will be used to accelerate market expansion in North America and improve the platform's secure collaboration and encrypted matching capabilities. Optable is based on CleanRoom technology, helping brands and media collaborate securely and ensuring the efficient use of first - party data within the framework of privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. The company plans to launch more APIs in the future to support data sharing in emerging advertising placement scenarios such as retail media and CTV.
12. Supermetrics acquired Relay42 to build an AI - driven CDP foundation
On June 18, 2025, Supermetrics announced the completion of the acquisition of the Dutch CDP vendor Relay42. After the transaction, Supermetrics will transform from a single data extraction tool into a full - stack marketing intelligence platform, combining Relay42's identity resolution and customer journey orchestration capabilities to launch an AI - based real - time decision - making service. It is expected that the integrated product will be launched in the autumn of 2025, supporting cross - channel data analysis, audience management, and automated activation. Its target customer group includes large brands and agencies.
04 AI Creativity & Marketing Automation
Creativity and advertising placement used to be the most "labor - intensive" aspects of the advertising industry. However, as the traffic dividend fades, brands need to produce more content, cover more channels in a shorter time, and maintain conversion efficiency at the same time.
The traditional approach is not only costly but also difficult to adapt to the fragmented and real - time feedback environment. The emergence of AI has changed this situation. It has automated content production, strategy formulation, and advertising placement execution, approaching "unmanned operation".
In the first half of 2025, financing and merger activities were concentrated in two types of enterprises. One type solves the problems of creativity and distribution, such as OpusClip, which automatically edits long - form videos into short - form videos for multiple platforms through generative AI; the other type solves the full - chain automation of marketing, with Superscale as a typical example, which packages strategy formulation, creative generation, and advertising placement execution into an AI engine; UpscaleAI focuses on CTV creative automation, reducing the production and optimization costs of video advertising; in addition, ManyChat secured $140 million to strengthen AI - driven conversational marketing, helping brands achieve fully automated interaction on instant messaging channels.
AI is turning the "dirty and tiring work" in the advertising industry into the work of machines. From single - creative to end - to - end automation, the next stage of competition will be about who can upgrade AI from a "tool" to a "system" and deeply integrate it with data and advertising placement to become the core of enterprise marketing.
13. OpusClip completed a $20 million financing round, with a valuation of $215 million
On March 11, 2025, the AI video editing platform OpusClip announced the completion of a $20 million Series B financing round, led by SoftBank Investment Advisers. After the investment, its valuation was approximately $215 million. OpusClip provides video editing services driven by generative AI, which can automatically split long - form videos into multiple short - form videos, optimize scenes, and add subtitles, supporting platforms such as TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. The company said that the funds will be used for technological upgrading, developing multi - language transcoding and automated advertising placement interfaces to meet the content needs of brands and