SAN FRANCISCO—Samba TV said it has acquired Semasio, a contextual targeting and audience data-solutions provider that will strengthen the company’s ability to deliver privacy-first targeting across digital and connected TV platforms using artificial intelligence-powered tools.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition enables Samba TV to expand the availability of its AI-powered solutions by integrating its video data into Semasio’s platform, enhancing advertisers’ ability to reach consumers with contextual relevance across digital, mobile, and CTV platforms, it said. It will enable advertisers to define and reach granular audience segments through a unified approach that combines contextual, behavioral and demographic data, the company said.
Semasio has more than 100 customers in 50 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, maintains over 1 billion stable user profiles globally and analyzes over 2.5 billion web pages each month. The deal will expand its global reach, Samba TV said.
“Our vision is that AI-generated data and insights will create high-performance, privacy-first advertising solutions, so we are doubling down on that with this acquisition,” Samba TV co-founder and CEO Ashwin Navin said. “Samba’s AI capabilities have been focused on streaming video, but we are now complemented by Semasio’s semantic analysis of the open web. While our competitors are faltering or shutting down, we are accelerating and doing so with the power of GenAI as a tailwind for our business, without compromises to data protections and privacy.”
The Semasio platform is already widely deployed among programmatic trading desks, enabling brands, agencies, and data owners to expand and activate first-party and third-party data at scale in dozens of countries worldwide. This combined offering addresses the need for brands to operate in a cookie-less, privacy-conscious world, where first-party data and contextual intelligence are crucial to success, the companies said.
“Before this acquisition, we were partners with Semasio and saw huge potential in the platform and for the team behind it,” Samba TV Chief Commercial Officer Aden Zaman said. “As a first-party data owner, we recognize and appreciate the importance of identity resolution, data distribution, and onboarding. The acquisition of Semasio expands our value proposition to data companies with global reach into the world’s most important media platforms.”
As a result of the deal, general manager Zac Pinkham will take the reins of the company from CEO Jeff Ragovin.
“We’re excited to join forces with Samba TV globally to bring our capabilities to a broader audience,” Pinkham said. “Our unified targeting approach, combined with Samba’s deep measurement insights and video viewership data, will enable advertisers to achieve greater reach and increased ability to accurately measure the results.”
Semasio will continue to operate as an independent business led by Pinkham, who was named general manager.
