The programmatic advertising platform startup StackAdapt Inc. today revealed it has closed on a hefty $235 million round of funding, bringing its total amount raised to date to more than $500 million.

Teachers’ Venture Growth, which is the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, led the round, with participation from Intrepid Growth and other investors.

The round underscores the strength of the digital advertising industry and it suggests Toronto-based StackAdapt is becoming an increasingly important player, thanks in part to its focus on “native ads.”

It was founded in 2014 by Chief Executive Vitaly Pecherskiy, together with Yang Han and Ildar Shar, and has built a “multichannel programmatic advertising platform” that leverages artificial intelligence to enable real-time, data-driven audience targeting. Using its platform, marketers can distribute and promote ads and achieve the best possible impact, while carefully analyzing how successful they are.

While StackAdapt supports multiple ad formats, its main focus is on native ads that mimic the look and feel of the website or app they’re displayed on. For instance on a news website, native ads will appear at first glance to be just another article, hidden among the genuine stories. Such an approach generates more engagement and higher click-through rates than traditional display or banner ads, though native ads have had mixed success in the past.

StackAdapt does support display and banner ads too, along with video adverts and connected TV ads, which are embedded within streaming content. This flexibility enables marketers to use its self-serve platform to distribute more creative, multichannel advertising campaigns, the startup says.

The platform provides features including real-time audience targeting, enabling marketers to see what kind of audience segments are currently online on any website or service they’re targeting. It also provides access to multiple publishers, tools for project management and creative ad optimization.

In addition, StackAdapt’s platform gives marketers access to third-party segments via data providers such as Acxiom Inc. and Bombare Inc., enabling them to home in on audiences by targeting specific locations, industries, job functions and more. The platform aims to keep things as simple as possible too, so marketers simply select their target criteria, and it will respond by unearthing the websites that those audiences are currently frequenting in real-time.

Pecherskiy said StackAdapt is an invaluable tool for marketers, who are under pressure to drive growth by reaching new customers in a profitable and predictable way. “To help them stay ahead of the curve, we are focused on building the most advanced, intelligent and automated platform to make their success inevitable,” Pecherskiy said.

The CEO said today’s funding comes at a pivotal moment for the company, which has massively expanded its footprint in the programmatic advertising industry. He said it now serves marketers across 19 global markets, and has grown its team to more than 1,300 staff.

TVG Senior Managing Director Rick Prostko said he believes StackAdapt’s trajectory positions it to become a global leader in the digital advertising industry. “[It has] been able to demonstrate consistent growth and profitability while building the future of advertising and marketing technology,” he said.

StackAdapt says it will use the money from today’s round to increase research and development efforts and expand its global presence.

Image: StackAdapt