Dive Brief:
- The Trade Desk has acquired digital advertising metadata startup Sincera for an undisclosed sum, according to a press release. The deal, subject to customary approvals, is expected to close in Q1 2025.
- Sincera is described as providing “objective” data insights, which aligns with The Trade Desk’s positioning as an independent demand-side platform (DSP). Those insights aim to help The Trade Desk’s clients get smarter with their programmatic ad spending in an increasingly fragmented media environment.
- Sincera Co-founder and CEO Mike O’Sullivan will work out of New York and report to The Trade Desk chief executive Jeff Green as part of the acquisition. The deal underpins the premium that marketers put on quality signals as they look to sift through ballooning data sources while cutting down on waste.
Dive Insight:
Snapping up Sincera could advance The Trade Desk’s pitch around serving as an independent DSP that’s distinct from walled gardens like Google. The announcement emphasized Sincera’s focus on objective insights and serving as a data company versus a data provider, a distinction that may appeal to marketers prioritizing transparency and a clearer view into performance.
Achieving those goals has been challenging amid a proliferation of media channels, including retail media and connected TV, while programmatic waste and fraud have been persistent industry concerns. Sincera helps advertising partners assess the quality of the data they receive from publishers and content providers and better pin down the value of the ad impressions.
“Sincera has done an amazing job of serving this expanding ecosystem with the right data that can improve performance for all participants in the ad tech supply chain,” said The Trade Desk’s Green in a press statement. “With this acquisition, we will scale the impact of Sincera in a way that will upgrade programmatic performance for everyone, and especially the quality of data signals that advertisers get from publishers.”
Sincera’s website lists services such as sales acceleration, analytics and functions related to machine learning and artificial intelligence. Past investors in the company include LiveRamp, Aperiam Ventures and Nextview. The Trade Desk and Sincera have collaborated in recent years, including on the former’s recent “The Sellers and Publishers Report” diving into the benefits of premium open web advertising.
Sincera is The Trade Desk’s second publicly disclosed acquisition to date following its purchase of Adbrain in 2017, AdExchanger reported.
The Trade Desk has stayed busy in the ramp up to a year that’s expected to see record ad spending. In November, it announced a smart TV operating system called Ventura that looks to compete with the likes of Roku and Amazon Fire TV.
