As streaming apps and services increasingly show viewers more ads, ad tech startup Vibe is using a self-serve ad platform similar to those used by small businesses to advertise. We plan to help small businesses take advantage of that trend by giving them access to inventory. Google or Meta services.
The startup recently raised $22.5 million in a funding round led by Paris-based VC firm Singular. Other investors include Elaia, Motier Ventures, and several business angels.
While Meta and Google clearly have the upper hand when it comes to online ad revenue, connected TV and streaming services represent a growth area with untapped potential for ad tech companies. But it's a fragmented market with a variety of streaming apps, channels, and live sports leagues.
Vibe has entered into agreements with some of these companies (or some of their partners) to make portions of their advertising inventory available to Vibe's customers. “Overall, you have access to every streaming app and channel currently available, except for Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube TV,” Vibe co-founder and CEO Arthur Querou told me.
But even outside of the big names, there are quite a number of different advertising options, including FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) services like Pluto, big OTT platforms like Fubo, and of course the broadcasters themselves like Paramount. Assisted streaming services exist.Warner Brothers, CNN, etc.
“We were very close to Comcast, which owns FreeWheel, which is a big platform that establishes a kind of marketplace for all of this inventory. We have Benjamin Antier on the board, who is the founder of one of the largest streaming apps. I'm the founder of Publica, which is an ad server. Also on the board is Ari Paparo, the founder of Beeswax, which was acquired by Comcast. To be honest, this is very political and very personal. It's about networking,” Querrey said.
The reason Vibe's team was able to convince a wide range of partners that they should work with Vibe is because Arthur Querou is an ad tech veteran. After creating MotionLead and selling it to Adikteev, he teamed up with Franck Tetzlaff, one of his co-founders at Doctolib and former CTO of Frichti, to form an adtech company called KMTX.
This semantic targeting company was acquired by Seedtag in 2022. After that departure, the two collaborated again to create his Vibe. They know and love the adtech industry, so they decided to refocus on adtech. “It's like a perfect sandbox. There's a lot of data, it's a real market, there are decisions…you can do whatever you want,” Querrey said.
Already addressing the long tail of 2,000 clients
One of Vibe's pitches is that the platform unlocks untapped potential for small businesses. Streaming apps and services are already in talks with Coca-Cola and Ford to secure a portion of their annual ad budgets, but reaching small businesses can be a bit more difficult.
Vibe allows car dealers, plumbers, and restaurants to create advertising campaigns directly. Using Vibe's advertising platform is very easy. After choosing which streaming apps and channels you want to advertise on, you can select geographic areas and audiences based on various interests.
Next, upload your video assets, get approval, and you're ready to go. Vibe also offers a performance dashboard where you can track how much you spend, cost per view, and other standard advertising metrics.
More than 2,000 U.S. companies are already using Vibe. Although the startup did not want to reveal exact sales numbers, Vibe gave him eight-figure sales in 2023. The company has 40 employees and he plans to expand to 110 by the end of the year.
The team will spend time on behind-the-scenes optimizations, such as improving targeting capabilities and automatically optimizing campaigns based on first-party data.
What about competition with Google and Meta? Arthur Querou doesn't think that will be a problem. Meta primarily focuses on advertising space on its social platforms. And Google: “On the one hand, publishers have learned their lessons and don't necessarily want to go down the same path as Google on the web. And on the other hand, streaming is also competing with his YouTube,” he said. I did.