In a world where data privacy has become one of the biggest challenges, Seedtag is moving away from the traditional use of cookies. Founded in 2014, Seedtag is a contextual advertising company that segments audiences in real time based on their interests by introducing a code in major editorial groups to register the content users are consuming. This method not only protects users’ privacy but also allows brands to position advertising aligned with that content in the most effective spots.

The company has grown rapidly, raising €250 million in 2022 and increasing its revenues by 50% in 2023. During its latest stage of growth, it has relied on our team to help prepare the company to scale more profitably. Learn more about their journey in the world of traditional digital advertising in this interview with Jorge Poyatos, one of Seedtag’s co-founders, and discover what the future holds for them.

Voice Over

Data privacy has become one of the biggest challenges of the digital era. As companies collect more information through the internet, consumers are increasingly concerned about how their data is used, altering the way they consume and challenging companies to evolve.

In response to this challenge, Seedtag, a contextual advertising company founded in 2014,  respects users' privacy and leaves the old use of cookies behind. By introducing a code in the major editorial groups that registers the content that users are consuming, Seedtag can segment in real time the audience according to their interests, allowing brands to position advertising aligned with that content in the most effective spots.

Its pioneering proposal in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning quickly gained traction and attracted the interest of many prominent funds, which allowed them to open more offices in Europe, expand into Latin America, US and Asia, and raise in 2022 the largest capital injection in Spain, €250 million, led by Advent International.

Today, with over 500 employees and offices in 16 countries around the globe, Seedtag stands as a key player in the contextual advertising space, with a 50% revenue growth in the last year and the most powerful contextual AI technology in the market.

Let’s now take a look into its future.

Muriel Schtickzelle

Hello, my name is Muriel Schtickzelle, I'm a partner in our private capital team at Oliver Wyman and I'm very happy to be joined today by Jorge Poyatos, one of the visionaries behind Seedtag’s development.

What we would like our conversation to be focused on today is on understanding the transformation journey that Seedtag has had over the last 10 years, how you've been able to lead in the digital advertising space, and which breakthrough you've been able to execute.

Jorge Poyatos

Thank you, Muriel. Thank you for inviting me to this conversation. 

We live in a world where privacy is becoming more and more important, and especially in digital advertising, the impact of that privacy is massive.

In the past, most of the technology was based on cookies. Itwas based on chasing the users across the web, which we believe is not the best way to do it, and it's not a 100% ethical. Seedtag focus on doing that in a better way. We focus on the user andtheir interest. We don't chase the users, instead we are developing technology to make sure that advertisers can be effective when they interact with the users, while respecting their privacy.

Muriel

How do your clients perceive the added value of that technology and how are you able to improve the service and the offering that you are delivering through them via these most advanced generative AI techniques?

Jorge

Over the last two years, we've released three products.

The first one is what we call the contextual graph. In Seedtag, we are integrated with most of the big publishers in every market, and we know every single day the content that the users are reading in the society. For example, you can see that there are many brands that they want to associate to sustainability, and when you get into our contextual graph, you can clearly understand which are the main topics around sustainability in which the users are interested every single day, and how that interest is evolving over time.

The second example is what we call custom AI. In the past, when brands were looking to target customers using contextual technology, they had to stick to predefined categories. But, when you look at our clients, what we see after 10 years, is that they don't want to fit in a “one size fits all” type of taxonomy. So, through custom AI, what we do is we create specific machine learning models for our clients so that they target unique users that are especially relevant for their positioning.

And the third disruption is when we incorporated generative AI into our creative capabilities. Let's use the example of an automotive brand. Many automotive brands have today SUV cars that they want to promote, and the positioning of a SUV car is a multiple positioning. They want to target families that live in cities, but they also want to target adventure type of people that want to go into the mountains.

What we do today is that we get the creative from the brand and then using Generative AI we change the background of that creative, and we customize the background to every specific context. And then, when we deliver that ad, what we get is that, for a user it's a much better experience, because they're seeing an ad that is fully integrated into the context, and for the brand, we're also increasing their effectiveness. We see more than 30% uplift.

Muriel

You’ve welcomed a private equity fund as part of your shareholders. Can you talk to us a bit what that brought to Seedtag, and how that enables you to also consider the next steps in your journey?

Jorge

In 2022, Advent International, which is one of the biggest private equities in the world, invested in Seedtag. We're scaling super-fast. We try to get people on board that they know how to take the company to the next level, and we thought that Advent had the knowledge and the financial power to support us on the next phase of the company. And the journey over the last year and a half has been incredible.

One of the benefits of working with Advent, and that's one of the reasons why we're here, is that they know how to work with external experts that can join the company for specific projects, can deliver a lot of value in a short period of time and can develop a capability that then we can use to continue our journey.

In that sense, last year we worked with Oliver Wyman in a very exciting project, where they were helping us to prepare the company to scale in a more profitable way. And it’s been a super interesting journey. I think we've learned a lot from Oliver Wyman. They have a lot of expertise around this topic. And I believe that what we have created will continue adding value for the years to come.

Muriel

Well, it was amazing for us to be a small part of the adventure, and I know we really enjoyed the collaboration, and we learned a lot by working with your team.

Can you tell us a bit more about what comes next at Seedtag?

Jorge

Our future focus on three different elements.

The first one is to be a full global player. In that sense, we believe that US over the next few years should grow exponentially, and at some point, it's going to become the biggest region for Seedtag.  With that, what we can offer to our brands is a global partner to work with them at a scale.

The other expansion that we're planning is more from a product point of view. Our vision is to become a privacy first omnichannel full funnel solution. In the omnichannel side, we are fully focused on the open web, but since last year we have already a solution for connected TV, and we are also expanding into other places like in-app or audio advertising, because we believe that our technology can deliver value across multiple channels.

And, in that sense, we want to help our brands from branding, that is our core historical business, down to pure performance.

Muriel

That sounds very exciting, but I feel like the next few years will be as busy for you and all the Seedtag team as they have been in the last few years.

Jorge

I think so, which is a good and a bad thing. But it is this super dynamic and demanding environment what excites us, and the reason why we're here.

Muriel

Thank you very much for your time, Jorge. It was fascinating for me to understand better Seedtag’s journey and the development that you've gone through in these last few years.

And thank you everybody that has watched the video.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

In a world where data privacy has become one of the biggest challenges, Seedtag is moving away from the traditional use of cookies. Founded in 2014, Seedtag is a contextual advertising company that segments audiences in real time based on their interests by introducing a code in major editorial groups to register the content users are consuming. This method not only protects users’ privacy but also allows brands to position advertising aligned with that content in the most effective spots.

The company has grown rapidly, raising €250 million in 2022 and increasing its revenues by 50% in 2023. During its latest stage of growth, it has relied on our team to help prepare the company to scale more profitably. Learn more about their journey in the world of traditional digital advertising in this interview with Jorge Poyatos, one of Seedtag’s co-founders, and discover what the future holds for them.

Voice Over

Data privacy has become one of the biggest challenges of the digital era. As companies collect more information through the internet, consumers are increasingly concerned about how their data is used, altering the way they consume and challenging companies to evolve.

In response to this challenge, Seedtag, a contextual advertising company founded in 2014,  respects users' privacy and leaves the old use of cookies behind. By introducing a code in the major editorial groups that registers the content that users are consuming, Seedtag can segment in real time the audience according to their interests, allowing brands to position advertising aligned with that content in the most effective spots.

Its pioneering proposal in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning quickly gained traction and attracted the interest of many prominent funds, which allowed them to open more offices in Europe, expand into Latin America, US and Asia, and raise in 2022 the largest capital injection in Spain, €250 million, led by Advent International.

Today, with over 500 employees and offices in 16 countries around the globe, Seedtag stands as a key player in the contextual advertising space, with a 50% revenue growth in the last year and the most powerful contextual AI technology in the market.

Let’s now take a look into its future.

Muriel Schtickzelle

Hello, my name is Muriel Schtickzelle, I'm a partner in our private capital team at Oliver Wyman and I'm very happy to be joined today by Jorge Poyatos, one of the visionaries behind Seedtag’s development.

What we would like our conversation to be focused on today is on understanding the transformation journey that Seedtag has had over the last 10 years, how you've been able to lead in the digital advertising space, and which breakthrough you've been able to execute.

Jorge Poyatos

Thank you, Muriel. Thank you for inviting me to this conversation. 

We live in a world where privacy is becoming more and more important, and especially in digital advertising, the impact of that privacy is massive.

In the past, most of the technology was based on cookies. Itwas based on chasing the users across the web, which we believe is not the best way to do it, and it's not a 100% ethical. Seedtag focus on doing that in a better way. We focus on the user andtheir interest. We don't chase the users, instead we are developing technology to make sure that advertisers can be effective when they interact with the users, while respecting their privacy.

Muriel

How do your clients perceive the added value of that technology and how are you able to improve the service and the offering that you are delivering through them via these most advanced generative AI techniques?

Jorge

Over the last two years, we've released three products.

The first one is what we call the contextual graph. In Seedtag, we are integrated with most of the big publishers in every market, and we know every single day the content that the users are reading in the society. For example, you can see that there are many brands that they want to associate to sustainability, and when you get into our contextual graph, you can clearly understand which are the main topics around sustainability in which the users are interested every single day, and how that interest is evolving over time.

The second example is what we call custom AI. In the past, when brands were looking to target customers using contextual technology, they had to stick to predefined categories. But, when you look at our clients, what we see after 10 years, is that they don't want to fit in a “one size fits all” type of taxonomy. So, through custom AI, what we do is we create specific machine learning models for our clients so that they target unique users that are especially relevant for their positioning.

And the third disruption is when we incorporated generative AI into our creative capabilities. Let's use the example of an automotive brand. Many automotive brands have today SUV cars that they want to promote, and the positioning of a SUV car is a multiple positioning. They want to target families that live in cities, but they also want to target adventure type of people that want to go into the mountains.

What we do today is that we get the creative from the brand and then using Generative AI we change the background of that creative, and we customize the background to every specific context. And then, when we deliver that ad, what we get is that, for a user it's a much better experience, because they're seeing an ad that is fully integrated into the context, and for the brand, we're also increasing their effectiveness. We see more than 30% uplift.

Muriel

You’ve welcomed a private equity fund as part of your shareholders. Can you talk to us a bit what that brought to Seedtag, and how that enables you to also consider the next steps in your journey?

Jorge

In 2022, Advent International, which is one of the biggest private equities in the world, invested in Seedtag. We're scaling super-fast. We try to get people on board that they know how to take the company to the next level, and we thought that Advent had the knowledge and the financial power to support us on the next phase of the company. And the journey over the last year and a half has been incredible.

One of the benefits of working with Advent, and that's one of the reasons why we're here, is that they know how to work with external experts that can join the company for specific projects, can deliver a lot of value in a short period of time and can develop a capability that then we can use to continue our journey.

In that sense, last year we worked with Oliver Wyman in a very exciting project, where they were helping us to prepare the company to scale in a more profitable way. And it’s been a super interesting journey. I think we've learned a lot from Oliver Wyman. They have a lot of expertise around this topic. And I believe that what we have created will continue adding value for the years to come.

Muriel

Well, it was amazing for us to be a small part of the adventure, and I know we really enjoyed the collaboration, and we learned a lot by working with your team.

Can you tell us a bit more about what comes next at Seedtag?

Jorge

Our future focus on three different elements.

The first one is to be a full global player. In that sense, we believe that US over the next few years should grow exponentially, and at some point, it's going to become the biggest region for Seedtag.  With that, what we can offer to our brands is a global partner to work with them at a scale.

The other expansion that we're planning is more from a product point of view. Our vision is to become a privacy first omnichannel full funnel solution. In the omnichannel side, we are fully focused on the open web, but since last year we have already a solution for connected TV, and we are also expanding into other places like in-app or audio advertising, because we believe that our technology can deliver value across multiple channels.

And, in that sense, we want to help our brands from branding, that is our core historical business, down to pure performance.

Muriel

That sounds very exciting, but I feel like the next few years will be as busy for you and all the Seedtag team as they have been in the last few years.

Jorge

I think so, which is a good and a bad thing. But it is this super dynamic and demanding environment what excites us, and the reason why we're here.

Muriel

Thank you very much for your time, Jorge. It was fascinating for me to understand better Seedtag’s journey and the development that you've gone through in these last few years.

And thank you everybody that has watched the video.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.