MONTREAL, July 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Optable, a SaaS data connectivity platform designed for the advertising ecosystem in the age of privacy, has partnered with Sharethrough, a top global independent omnichannel ad exchange, to give advertisers the unprecedented ability to leverage first-party data assets for campaigns without physically sharing audience data, thereby establishing a data collaboration infrastructure to power the future state of digital advertising.

Optable's platform uses cryptography to enable decentralized collaboration around audience data, allowing users to continuously connect audience data with certified partners in a secure, privacy-preserving manner. As walled gardens become more common, solutions aimed at linking these data carriers together will become increasingly vital for the advertising ecosystem.

"The industry is going through tremendous transformation driven by the erosion of third-party cookies and mobile identifiers, as well as increased regulatory pressure around the world," said Vlad Stesin, co-founder and CPO, Optable. "Working with Sharethrough enables us to lead the imminent transition from legacy global identifiers to a new fabric of identity woven across the ecosystem in not only a safe and compliant way, but also in a way that allows each party to control their own data. Ultimately, by collaborating with Optable, Sharethrough is enabling publishers to increase their inventory's value while keeping data security and privacy front and center.

Publishers who use the Sharethrough ad exchange will be able to activate people-targeted campaigns by safely onboarding their first-party data into a secure, private location on the Optable platform, facilitating direct collaboration with advertisers and minimizing technical and legal barriers.

"This collaboration provides us with the possibility to offer our publisher partners next-generation data connectivity technology, which, until now, has mostly been available within large walled gardens," said Pat Marin, SVP Partnerships, Sharethrough. "Optable's technology solves for the emerging privacy challenges, allowing advertisers to transact using their own audience data without sharing this data with any other party."

About Optable
Optable is a SaaS data connectivity platform designed for the advertising ecosystem in the age of privacy. Inspired by the radical transformation in how data is governed, connected, and used, Optable was built by veterans of the ad tech industry to address the need for a new generation of privacy-preserving data connectivity software. Leveraging cryptographic technology, Optable is the only in-market solution that offers a decentralized, "headless" approach to enabling advertisers, publishers, data companies, and other partners to safely and securely compare and leverage audience data. https://www.optable.co/

About Sharethrough
Sharethrough is one of the top global independent omnichannel ad exchanges. Driven by our conviction that advertising should be underpinned by respect & care, we believe taking a human-centric approach to advertising and monetization is the key to a sustainable path forward for the independent and accessible internet to thrive. Advertisers & publishers leverage Sharethrough's unique technology to enhance every impression by rendering a higher-performing banner, video or native ad that dynamically fits into any placement on any site. Our publisher partners benefit from directly-sourced demand, scale and quality, prioritizing their monetization efforts while elevating performance. With its headquarters in Montreal, Sharethrough has several offices across North America including San Francisco on the west coast & New York City in the east.

MEDIA CONTACT:  Kevin Rider, 856-558-3573, krider@kcsa.com

SOURCE Optable

Last spring, just as the global pandemic was going in full effect, we founded and pre-seeded the company ourselves. Today, a year later, after having added some of the best engineering talent we’ve ever worked with to the team, we are ready for the next phase of our growth. 

We believe that the Internet is on the cusp of a brand new era in which we will witness the emergence of many more walled gardens, with many more companies taking a stance on privacy. This is much bigger than the disappearance of global identifiers such as third party cookies and IDFAs. Those events will only accelerate this trend, as will the legislative pressure around the world. A new software layer is required to enable companies to collaborate and ensure trust: data connectivity solutions like ours have become a priority for a myriad of existing and upcoming walled gardens dependent on advertising revenue.

Leadership groups at many leading media and advertising companies have confirmed the vision and the strategic importance of the product that we are building. Our use of advanced cryptography to ensure security and enable our clients to maintain data sovereignty offers many ways to collaborate and create specialized solutions for various stakeholders in our industry. 

We believe that we have a strong vision, an experienced team and the foundation of a great product that will allow us to help leading media and advertising companies to solve complex challenges they are facing. 

A special thanks goes to Sophie Forest and her team at Brightspark Ventures who have led the seed round with a significant investment. We are also grateful for the support from a group of AdTech veterans and Angel Investors. Those include David Hahn, former CPO of Integral Ad Science (acquired by Vista Equity Partners), David Yaffe, founder and former CEO of Arbor (acquired by LiveRamp), Jim Payne, founder and former CEO of MoPub (acquired by Twitter), and Alex Blum, former Executive Chairman of Tru Optik (acquired by TransUnion).  

It is worth noting that Alex Blum and Sophie Forest will be serving on our board of directors, helping us fulfill our mission.

So, lots of work (and fun) in perspective. We'll make sure to share our progress.

Here is the press release we have shared with the world: 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-samsung-ads-tech-leadership-and-founders-of-adgear-close-seed-round-for-optable-us3-6m-raised-to-date-301284607.html

And here is the story in AdExchanger: https://www.adexchanger.com/platforms/adgear-founders-raise-3-6-million-for-new-data-privacy-venture/‍

When we sold our previous company, AdGear, to Samsung in 2016, the “new” ad tech ecosystem seemed pretty established. Back then, one of the most interesting trends was the emergence of connected TV, which is why working with Samsung made a lot of sense. 

Samsung's vision of building an ad business was very compelling, and we spent the following 3 years helping build Samsung Ads. That business has seen tremendous growth and by all measures, both Samsung Ads, and AdGear within it, have been a huge success. After 3 years, we (Yves Poiré, Vlad Stesin, Bosko Milekic), have started exploring some new directions that we found attractive.

Although we played around with many different ideas, there is one problem that we feel compelled to solve and are really excited about. Chrome's announcement on the imminent phasing out of third party cookies marked the beginning of a new age in ad tech. Having lived through the traditional ad serving era, then the transition to programmatic/RTB — what we're about to witness is as big of a change as the transition to real-time bidding, and it is as exciting.

It feels like there hasn't been a better time to start an ad tech company in the past 10 years. Like many huge changes, this one is not really that sudden. GDPR, CCPA, various regulations in various geographies, public outcry over Facebook's use of data... This is not new but it's been accelerating for a while now.

There are many reasons why we find this exciting:

• There is a need to mitigate the need for non-anonymous consent with the privacy that is sought by the user. There is an inherent tension that has to be addressed.
• It's really compelling to imagine a world where the rudimentary "API" of third-party cookies is replaced by a real API designed to prevent the pervasive online tracking of individuals, the privacy sandbox. We assume that over time, this will apply to mobile and other devices too.
• Digital identity is the larger battlefield. Of course there are the big tech companies you're logged in with. But we believe that the Internet will play out with many identity frameworks woven into one ecosystem. That was the path with RTB, and we feel that it will be similar with identity.
• We like the idea of various publisher, marketer and user systems (i.e., browser) talking to each other through a net of privacy sandboxes.

Here are the challenges we find compelling:

• If consent is really required from consumers, the ramifications of managing that consent bit across various touchpoints is huge. CRM, CDP, DMP, publishers, data platforms, media platforms — they all need to be in the loop. It's huge.
• Publishers will have to play carrot vs. stick, requiring some form of a login in return for giving access to the content, either blocking access entirely or providing more reasons for users to login (ex. contests etc). How will that play out? Will we go back to the 90's with "punch the monkey" type approaches? Will it be more respectful? How will people really care and what does it mean for independent publishers?
• Non-web environments also need to implement identity and consent, and translate that identity and consent for other platforms to understand. How long will it take before this happens?
• Advertisers managing consent and effectively having traceability over targeting any specific member of the audience. How can that be presented to the end-user in such a way that they care? 
  

It may seem a bit odd to start a new company in the midst of one of the biggest pandemics the world has ever seen, but it makes sense to us. First, we feel the responsibility to start rebuilding, together, with many other people around us. There is a lot to be done. And second, this pause allows publishers and marketers alike to rethink the way they do things, and sometimes even challenge the incumbents. That’s what makes this timing so appealing. 

We're really excited to build a new team and build new products again!