Series A investment from Volition Capital to solidify Aditude's tech leadership position in the expected $835B annual global digital ad market

Aditude, a leading Ad Operations technology solution for online publishers, today announced it closed a $15M Series A funding round from Boston-based growth equity firm, Volition Capital. The investment follows 478% growth in 2021 and 650% growth in 2022 over a three year span fueled by rapid adoption of Aditude's proprietary cloud-based header bidding tech stack for publishers to operate and monetize display and video ads faster and more efficiently.

Digital ad spend represents a large and growing market that is expected to reach $835B by 2026. With the increased complexity of digital ad tech stacks, there is a significant open opportunity to transform the legacy advertising ops and header bidding ecosystem with better options for publishers. Open-source solutions are difficult to implement without technical expertise and most managed service providers offer black box technology.

While the online ad market has matured, little innovation has occurred in pricing models, header bidding solutions, or technical support for publishers. Aditude fills this gap with proprietary technology and tailored solutions for every publisher with custom pricing that drives revenue. Built by a team with deep AdTech experience, Aditude started as an ad ops consultancy that eventually built its own products due to a lack of third-party tech innovation and pricing models.

Aditude differentiates itself with its technology. Legacy managed ad ops solutions emphasize demand-side relationships and rely on revenue share models. Aditude provides customized technology to drive performance and offers transparent pricing that is value-aligned with publishers. Aditude consistently iterates and updates its solutions, including a cloud wrapper solution, page layout creation tool, customizable video player for video ads, and cloud hosting to increase ad and page speed.

"We founded Aditude on the simple belief that publishers can make more money through better technology and websites – not just by having the best advertiser relationships," said Jared Siegal, CEO of Aditude. "Having experienced the industry pain points for publishers firsthand as a former publisher, I decided to completely transform the ecosystem with superior technology built in house and set out with my team to provide the most robust and flexible solutions for revenue-focused publishers."

With the investment, Aditude will continue to develop and introduce new products and services focused on ease-of-use and publisher success. The company, which was previously 100% self-funded and profitable from day one, will also invest in marketing to grow brand awareness and plans to scale the team with a goal of doubling headcount (currently 16) by the end of 2024. Aditude is also evaluating opportunities for strategic acquisitions of managed ad ops players in the space to accelerate growth.

"Great B2B software companies are built with technology that helps customers scale their business and revenues in a seemingly effortless way," said Jim Ferry, Principal at Volition Capital. "Based on that blueprint, we envision that Aditude will continue its leadership position as an industry disruptor by providing publishers a better and easier way to manage their ad ops. Jared embodies the type of hard-working ambitious founder we look for, and we have great enthusiasm for partnering with him and the entire team."

Aditude prioritizes publisher success with ad support on top of its technology. Its team of experts can help with SSP optimizations and onboarding, prebid solutions set up and management, direct campaign set up and management, and full site audits. Publishers can work with Aditude developers familiar with AdTech to help save time and money so they can focus on scale and other core business priorities.

Customer Testimonials

"As a fast-growing destination for people to instantly play free online games in their browser, our primary focus is gameplay and user experience. However, there was significant opportunity for us to drive revenues with video and display ads. Aditude is working behind the scenes to manage all of our ad serving and today powers billions of monthly impressions and millions in new revenue across our sites. We never have to worry about scaling our downtime and can stay focused on ensuring our customers get the best possible gaming experience." - Ben Armstrong, Now.gg

"Prior to working with Aditude, we were working with multiple companies for ad ops, development, prebid and lacked control or understanding of each vendor's positioning. We were faced with massive data discrepancies and loss in traffic, which in turn, prevented us from fully optimizing our ad revenue potential. Aditude worked to consolidate and bring everything in-house to give us better control and enabled us to transform into a profitable and scalable website." - Michael Bellom, Playmaker

Aditude was founded by Jared Siegal (CEO) who formerly led ad ops at Answers.com when it was one of the largest websites in the world. Since its evolution from a consultancy to a tech company, Aditude's success has been driven by the team's deep domain knowledge of the ad operations market, a passion for building innovative technology that empowers publishers to scale, as well as established relationships with key ecosystem partners.

Bloomreach, the platform fueling limitless e-commerce experiences, today announced its Bloomreach Discovery e-commerce search solution has been recognized as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Search and Product Discovery, Q3 2023. This industry report provides an independent evaluation of the 10 most significant commerce search and product discovery vendors evaluating them on 26 criteria. The full report is available here.

Bloomreach Discovery is an AI-powered e-commerce search and merchandising solution that uncovers limitless opportunities for growth. Powered by rich data and self-learning AI, its search engine deeply understands customer intent, delivering relevant and personalized results for shoppers and buyers. Its capabilities continue to grow, particularly with new developments in generative AI and large language models (LLMs), with the Forrester report noting, “Bloomreach is a well-established player in this market that continues to acquire and internally innovate.”

In addition, Bloomreach Discovery offers a suite of merchandising tools with a unique balance of AI and user empowerment. It allows merchandisers to optimize the e-commerce experience based on their instinct and expertise, while relying on AI to scale efforts and reduce manual tasks. In the report, Forrester noted that Bloomreach’s “strong vision puts the merchandiser at the center of its strategic decisions.”

“To be named a leader in the Forrester Wave for Commerce Search and Product Discovery is an exciting moment for all of us at Bloomreach,” said Jordan Roper, General Manager and Head of Product, Bloomreach Discovery. “While Bloomreach Discovery has powered personalized e-commerce search for many years, we’ve always continued to prioritize innovation. We’re relentlessly seeking new ways to make this platform more impactful for the e-commerce experience and for the merchandisers that bring it to life, and we feel those efforts have been validated with the release of this new report.”

Qualiti.ai, a Utah-based software test automation solution, announced the closing of a $6.5 million Seed round today. Sierra Ventures led the funding round, with participation from Epic Ventures.

Founded by industry veterans Peter West (CEO) and Jeff Handy (COO), Qualiti uses AI to test any software product without human input. Qualiti can be set up in just 15 minutes, after which a full test suite will be created without human effort. Qualiti’s AI handles all new and ongoing test authoring and maintenance. Qualiti takes care of it 100% hands-off, adding new tests, maintaining existing tests, triaging results in real-time, and reporting any bugs found, all without human oversight or time, thus allowing it to replace up to 30% of a company's engineering budget.

With a rapidly growing customer base (340% MoM and growing), Qualiti will use the funding to expand sales and their world-class engineering team. Qualiti is poised to be the only tool a company will need for all of its QA. With engineers getting near-instant feedback on their applications as they push code, Qualiti will change the way software is developed forever.

“Most AI companies today are wrappers around chat-gpt and most seem to just be glorified grammar checkers. Even the more interesting applications tend to just be a tool to help you do what you’re already doing. It’s about time that AI does the work for us, and Qualiti has made that happen for testing - and we’re the only ones who have truly made that, a truly hands-off no-human-work-needed AI managed solution, happen in testing," stated Qualiti.ai CEO Peter West.

"Qualiti has an opportunity to disrupt the test automation industry, which is in desperate need of true innovation," said Sierra Ventures Managing Director Mark Fernandes. "The rapid adoption of their solution by developers at very selective companies is evidence that the team has hit a nerve.”

Gartner Has Recognized LivePerson in Multiple Reports

LivePerson (Nasdaq: LPSN), a global leader in Conversational AI, today announced it has been named a Sample Vendor in the Gartner Hype Cycle for Customer Service and Support Technologies, July 2023. This marks the third consecutive year that LivePerson has been included as a Sample Vendor in this report. The company's Hype Cycle reports share information about the promise of emerging technologies. A sample vendor is a company that provides a specific product or service that is relevant to a technology or innovation in the Gartner Hype Cycle.

In addition to being named a Sample Vendor in the Hype Cycle for Customer Service and Support Technologies for three consecutive years, Gartner also recognized LivePerson as a Representative Vendor in the "Market Guide for Speech Analytics Platforms" (March 2023). This report provides insights for customer service and support leaders on implementing speech analytics technology to enhance customer experiences.

In 2022, Gartner mentioned LivePerson as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider in the report "How Should My Organization Leverage WhatsApp Business API for Rich Conversations?" (March 2022). This report advises software engineering leaders on the issues, trends and concerns when making decisions on WhatsApp support.

"Conversations are at the heart of doing business. With AI and automation helping to bring better conversations to life on a massive scale, the ability to deliver and continually improve conversational experiences is more important than ever," said Alex Kroman, Executive Vice President, Product and Technology at LivePerson. "We're delighted to be recognized in multiple Gartner reports, including this third consecutive year in the Gartner Hype Cycle for Customer Service and Support."

Consumable, a pioneering force in the audio advertising arena, is excited to announce its collaboration with Comscore to validate the remarkable scale of its Audio Everywhere Marketplace via their Media Metrix tool. This strategic partnership solidifies Consumable's position as a leader in the industry, with the newly verified audience of 118 million Monthly Active Users (Comscore Media Metrix Custom Reporting, June 2023, U.S.) showcasing the platform's extensive reach and impact.

Consumable's Audio Marketplace launched over 2 years ago, and quickly became the #1 Supplier of exclusive digital audio inventory to the audio industry (DV360 Supply Reports June 2023) with over $1B in annual supply and growing. Thousands of brands are leaning in across all key categories including Retail, CPG, Finance, Tech, Telco, Entertainment, Fashion, Professional Services, and more.

This announcement solidifies a significant milestone in Consumable's journey for additional 3rd party verification of its marketplace. By joining forces with Comscore, Consumable now offers advertisers a verified and accurate assessment of the Audio Everywhere Marketplace's audience, reaffirming its commitment to transparency and effectiveness in digital advertising.

Consumable's patent-pending Visual Audio™ ad product combined with its unique supply is disrupting the industry. For the first time, Audio is addressable. With a 90%+ Listen Through Rate (LTR), brands benefit from incremental reach to existing audio buys, with high-performing ads that drive desired business outcomes. Publishers benefit by onboarding new demand from Audio buyers, optimizing for overall yield. Consumable's Audio Everywhere Marketplace is rapidly becoming the go-to destination for advertisers seeking innovative and impactful ways to connect with their target audiences with optimal reach and frequency, and for publishers who want to optimize for yield.

"We are thrilled to partner with Comscore's Media Metrix to validate the impressive reach of our Audio Everywhere Marketplace," said Mark Levin, CEO of Consumable. "This collaboration not only showcases our platform's extensive audience but also demonstrates our dedication to delivering value and actionable insights to our advertising partners."

Through this partnership, advertisers can verify Consumable's audiences via Comscore's renowned audience measurement and analytics capabilities. Comscore Media Metrix empowers advertisers with accurate and comprehensive data, enabling them to make informed decisions and optimize their campaigns for maximum impact. Advertisers can now confidently tailor their strategies to engage the 118 million MAU within Consumable's verified audience.

"We are thrilled to collaborate with Consumable and have our data support their continued commitment to accurate verification" stated, Bryan Segal, Senior Vice President of Sales at Comscore. "Our massive datasets help publishers deliver granular audience insights - beyond just demographics - that brands and advertisers can trust." With this collaboration, Consumable's Audio Everywhere Marketplace continues to stand at the forefront of innovative digital advertising solutions. The partnership with Comscore Media Metrix ensures advertisers can harness the power of a verified and substantial audience, leading to more targeted and effective campaigns.

Banzai International, Inc, a leading marketing technology company that provides data-driven marketing and sales solutions, today announced that it has joined HubSpot's App Partner Program and its webinar platform Demio is now a certified integration in HubSpot’s App Marketplace.

HubSpot, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform for scaling companies, works hand-in-hand with App Partners to help grow their business through extending the product value of their apps, and distributing quality apps through the HubSpot App Marketplace.

Demio’s integration into HubSpot provides marketing teams the ability to create webinars, virtual events, and engaging experiences that deliver deep analytics within the HubSpot CRM. With Demio, marketers are able to uplevel their online events by creating engaging webinar programs that drive measurable results.

“Becoming a HubSpot App Partner allows us to seamlessly integrate our data-driven webinar solution into the HubSpot ecosystem, making it super simple for our customers to identify qualified webinar leads and measure the value of their webinar programming,” said Ashley Levesque, VP of Communications at Banzai. “This partnership allows us to enhance our customer experience and ultimately drive growth. Together with HubSpot, we’re shaping the future of marketing and sales technology.”

HubSpot’s App Partner Program is an ecosystem of valuable third-party integrations. Certified integrations demonstrate an investment in product quality and customer experience.

“Our customers want to achieve great results fast, and we’re always looking to provide solutions and tools that will help them do their jobs quickly and streamline operations,” said Scott Brinker, VP of platform ecosystem at HubSpot. “Banzai’s Demio platform is a great option for achieving that efficiency, and we’re excited that they’re a part of the App Partner Program.”

In addition to becoming a HubSpot App Partner, Banzai will be attending HubSpot’s annual INBOUND conference, taking place September 5-8 in Boston, Massachusetts. INBOUND is the premier conference that brings together business, marketing, and sales leaders to network, learn, and grow. Banzai will be exhibiting all three days of the conference at Booth 47.

Avaya, a global leader in customer experience solutions, today announced eight North American partners who have been honored for their outstanding collaboration, contribution, and dedication to accelerating growth and enabling customers and others to choose their own cloud journey while innovating without disruption. Avaya’s Partner of the Year Awards celebrate leaders across nine categories (Technology Service Distributor/Service Provider; Avaya Cloud Office; Avaya Enterprise Cloud; State, Local, and Education –SLED; and U.S. Federal) in addition to awards presented for Overall U.S. and Canadian Partners of the Year in Total Revenue and Total Growth.

“Avaya offers our customers choices in their cloud communications journey whether they choose on-premises, hybrid, or a full-cloud migration and our valued partners play a critical trusted advisor role in leading our shared customers along their individual cloud journeys,” said John Lindsley, Vice President of North America Channel Sales, Avaya. “We applaud our partners for their accomplishments while remaining ruthlessly committed to delivering exceptional customer and partner experiences.”

Avaya partners are chosen based upon their growth and revenue. Here is a list of the winners and category for which they were honored:

Winners

NWN Carousel

• Enterprise Cloud Revenue Partner of the Year

NWN Carousel is a leading Cloud Communications Service Provider (CCSP) focused on transforming the customer and employee hybrid work experience for commercial, enterprise and public sector organizations. With over 5,000 customers throughout the U.S., NWN Carousel provides integrated unified communications, security, contact center, managed devices, connectivity, and advanced technology solutions—all powered by the Experience Management Platform (EMP).

CSG Global Consulting

• U.S. Partner of the Year for Total Growth

CSG Global Consulting is a leading regional multi-vendor value-added reseller of next-generation voice, data, video, and mobility solutions. CSG specializes in Unified Communications technology and network infrastructure solutions. Established in 2004, CSG has proven success from planning and design, installation and integration, to the ongoing support and monitoring of your systems and applications.

CSG embraces Avaya’s innovation without disruption as they support their customers’ journeys across premise, hybrid or to the cloud.

TELUS Corporation

• Canadian Partner of the Year for Total Growth

TELUS is a dynamic, world-leading technology company powered by purpose with $13.5 billion USD in annual revenue and 18 million customer connections. As a leading digital customer experience (CX) innovator, TELUS designs, builds, and delivers next-gen digital solutions for global and disruptive brands.

TELUS and Avaya are innovators and have jointly developed an Avaya Enterprise Cloud solution, TELUS Managed Migration (TMM), to transition the Canadian base of legacy communications solutions to the cloud in healthcare, government, industry, and large enterprise sectors.

ConvergeOne (C1)

• Avaya Cloud Office Partner of the Year
• Overall U.S. Partner of the Year for Total Revenue

ConvergeOne is a premier IP-enabled, services-led, customer experience solutions provider. Over 10,000 customers use C1 every day to help them build meaningful connections through remarkably innovative and secure experiences. This is the second consecutive year C1 has claimed both the Overall Revenue and Avaya Cloud Office Partner of the Year awards from Avaya.

Avaya and C1 are reimagining digital communications with innovation that defines the future of work and the customer experience.

Windstream Communications Inc.

• Service Provider Partner of the Year

Windstream Communications is a leading IT managed network and communications provider for enterprise organizations and carrier partners across the U.S. providing data, cloud solutions, unified communications and managed services to its clients.

Windstream led the service provider space for Avaya by growing in all categories and continues to lead the way in 2023.

Intelisys

• Technology Service Distributor Partner of the Year

Intelisys accelerates the future of IT by providing access to the hardware, software, connectivity and cloud services that businesses need to support their hybrid workplace of the future. It’s also one of the original, and premier, Telecom Master Agencies in the U.S.

Intelisys had an outstanding year of growth driving Avaya public cloud office seats.

Alliance Technology Group

• U.S. Federal Partner of the Year

Alliance Technology Group is a North American Systems Integrator & IT Solutions/Services company. Alliance specializes in IT Infrastructure, Physical & Cyber Security, Storage, Systems and Networking.

As a Diamond Avaya Partner, Alliance has built a dedicated management program to uniquely support Federal, State and Local Agencies. Through this effort, Alliance has earned this recognition.

Waterfield Technologies

• State, Local, and Education (SLED) Partner of the Year

Waterfield Tech transforms customer engagement for organizations leveraging a consultative, client-centric approach to design, build, and manage scalable, omnichannel and AI-enabled customer experience solutions.

Their breakthrough innovations in contact center tech, applied AI, and workforce engagement reduce business costs, improve customer satisfaction, and help customers deploy a smarter utilization of the human workforce. Waterfield’s results, passion, and commitment have earned them this year’s award.