It’s apparently a pretty good time to be an ad tech startup.
In the past few weeks alone, a handful of new companies opened up shop in the US, with plans to build new ad tech businesses for connected TV monetization, pharma and native advertising, just to name a few.
The latest is a social video-focused startup called Biddeo.io, which announced its expansion to the US on Tuesday. Biddeo launched in Spain in 2020 under parent company Kimia Group, and its MO is to help advertisers secure video inventory more cheaply than they can through direct campaigns on social platforms.
To lead the US expansion, Biddeo appointed media consultant Adam Kline as CEO of its North America business. He spent 15 years leading LA-based investment firm Rubicon Organization after stints doing business development for video game publishers including Ubisoft and 505 Games.
A bid for attention
Kline says Biddeo can secure social video inventory for as much as 80% less than what its clients had paid previously, based on a cost per view metric. Biddeo declined to share more specific numbers or examples.
The market opportunity for social video monetization is especially ripe in the US, Kline said. After all, the IAB predicts social video ad spend will outpace streaming this year, growing 20% compared to just 12% for CTV.
Biddeo integrates with the APIs of social video walled gardens: Google, Meta, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitch and Spotify. Through these integrations, it creates algorithms to detect lulls in demand for a client’s desired inventory or audience, often by identifying bid density decreases on particular terms, said CTO Álvaro Salinas.
For example, when competing bidders pause campaigns or lowers their bids, it creates opportunities to swoop in and secure inventory at a lower price than otherwise would be available, said Kevin Nguyen, VP of operations for Biddeo’s North America business.
Based on those patterns, Biddeo updates client campaigns every hour with what it determines should be the minimum bid needed to win inventory.
But to be clear, Nguyen said, Biddeo is not arbitraging or reselling media. “We don’t reserve inventory. We don’t work with DSPs and SSPs,” he said. “Essentially, we’re able to lower bids at the right time, and we’re only [integrated with] walled gardens.”
Bidding on the long game
Biddeo is ready to step up in the biggest market. It operates in Latin America, Israel, Mumbai and several European markets.
To attract new US customers, it’s touting a global client base that includes international divisions of major agency holding companies, such as GroupM and Dentsu, in addition to household-name brands like Pepsi and Adidas. According to Kline, Biddeo has helped run more than 3,000 global ad campaigns to date.
The company also plans to hire 15 employees for its sales operations in New York and Los Angeles in the next year. (To date, it has 150 global employees.)
Building the business takes time, especially in a new market, Kline said. But he’s optimistic the company can win enough new customers to secure a foothold in the US by the end of next year.
“We expect to grow very quickly,” Kline said.
By 2026, we’ll know whether or not Biddeo is dreaming too big.
