LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, ID5, the market-leading identity provider for digital advertising, announced a Series B funding round of $20 million. This investment, the largest to date in the identity space, validates ID5’s key role in steering the industry forward during a critical juncture for digital advertising.
TransUnion and S4S Ventures join existing investors Progress Ventures, Seventure Partners, 360 Capital Partners, Axio, and Aperiam Ventures to support ID5 in growing its privacy-first advertising identity service. Sanja Partalo, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of S4S Ventures, and Michael Schoen, EVP and head of TruAudience marketing solutions at TransUnion, join the ID5 board of directors.
This funding round represents a major endorsement of ID5’s innovative approach to identity, in a pivotal year marked by increasing digital media investments, regulatory scrutiny, and the final stages of cookie deprecation. After several years of austerity from venture capitalists, this substantial backing signals a strategic shift in investment trends. It also highlights the confidence financial and strategic investors have in ID5’s technology and its ability to constantly innovate to support digital advertising’s use cases as well as regulatory requirements.
Since its launch in 2017, ID5 has been laser-focused on its mission to provide safe and scalable technology that makes advertising addressable and measurable while protecting people’s data. This focus, combined with a clear strategic vision, has enabled ID5 to become the most adopted identification service globally, making it the leading contender in the identity race. ID5’s solutions have been adopted by thousands of publishers, advertisers, and ad tech platforms, including Havas Media, New York Post, M6 Publicité, Adobe Advertising platform, OpenX, and Eyeota, a Dun & Bradstreet company. Today, almost 50% of online advertising transactions are supported by ID5.
Several companies have already measured the uplift that ID5 provides and its effectiveness in cookieless environments, as numerous case studies demonstrate. These proof points, along with the anticipated end of cookies in 2024, have sparked a significant surge in demand for ID5's services.
“ID5 has been receiving unprecedented levels of support from investors and interest from partners,” said Mathieu Roche, ID5’s CEO and Co-Founder. “This investment from strategic players such as TransUnion and S4S Ventures, in such a pivotal year for our industry, further strengthens our position as the leading identity solution and demonstrates trust in our ability to provide our partners with best in class technology to support addressable and measurable advertising.”
“The data landscape has shifted hugely with the slow death of cookies, and ID5 has emerged from the disruption with a winning formula to enable brands to amplify the value of their data,” said Sir Martin Sorell, Executive Chairman at S4 Capital Group and Co-founder at S4S Ventures. “The company has demonstrated that its innovative technology allows advertising to be targeted, while respecting customer privacy and preferences. It draws on European roots and GDPR experience to offer a more sophisticated approach to data privacy, while helping brands get maximum return on their advertising investments.”
“As an early investor and continued supporter, TransUnion sees significant value in ID5's approach—validated by both buy and sell side adoption,” said Michael Schoen, EVP and Head of TruAudience Marketing Solutions at TransUnion. “ID5’s identifier, integrated with TransUnion’s identity and addressability solution, is a powerful combination for reaching authenticated and unauthenticated audiences and provides marketers with a much-needed solution in the post-cookie world for effective activation and measurement.”
“ID5 has built a scalable and efficient identity solution to support digital advertising in a post-cookie world,” said Sanja Partalo, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of S4S Ventures. “Their focus and ability to execute have enabled them to reach the highest level of adoption in the market. We are delighted to support them as they continue to innovate and shape the future of digital advertising.”
ID5’s efforts and achievements have positioned the company at the forefront of the identity landscape. As the digital advertising market evolves, ID5 will continue to innovate and expand its mission to support the entire advertising ecosystem by powering addressable and measurable advertising across all channels.
About ID5
ID5 was created to improve online advertising for consumers, media owners, and advertisers, with the ultimate goal of helping publishers grow sustainable revenue. ID5 provides the advertising ecosystem with a transparent, scalable, and privacy-compliant identity infrastructure. Its solutions enable user recognition across media properties and devices, bringing addressability across all digital advertising channels. This enables media owners to better monetize their audiences, advertisers to run effective and measurable campaigns, and platforms to maximize the value of data and inventory for their customers. Created in 2017 by seasoned ad tech professionals, ID5 services clients globally. For more information about ID5 and its solutions, please visit www.id5.io
About S4S Ventures
S4S Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies focused on transforming the Marketing and Advertising sector through digital innovation. The firm focuses on five principal areas: Martech, Adtech, Data Technology, Creative Technology, and Emerging Digital Media/Content. Its investment portfolio includes companies providing solutions for programmatic advertising, data warehousing, content development, and emerging digital media. The team at S4S provides strategic guidance and support to their portfolio companies to ensure they have the resources they need to succeed. S4S Ventures believes in the power of technology to transform the marketing and advertising sector and is passionate about supporting startups that are driving innovation and change. www.s4sventures.com
About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)
TransUnion is a global information and insights company with over 13,000 associates operating in more than 30 countries. We make trust possible by ensuring each person is reliably represented in the marketplace. We do this with a Tru™ picture of each person: an actionable view of consumers, stewarded with care. Through our acquisitions and technology investments we have developed innovative solutions that extend beyond our strong foundation in core credit into areas such as marketing, fraud, risk and advanced analytics. As a result, consumers and businesses can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good® — and it leads to economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for millions of people around the world. http://www.transunion.com/business
