Nielsen rival iSpot.tv gets $325 million Goldman Sachs investment

ISpot.tv is getting a $325 million investment from Goldman Sachs, which appears to be record single-round financing for a Nielsen challenger amid growing investor interest in the audience measurement business. The investment gives iSpot—which previously had raised $58 million in investment since its founding in April 2012—a major capital infusion to invest in technology and acquisitions as it looks to stake its claim as an alternative to Nielsen as a measurement currency for writing TV deals. RSVP for Ad Age In-Depth: TV Pivot on May 24 and 25 at AdAge.com/TVPivot “The short of it is, we’re going to go harder,” iSpot.tv CEO Sean Muller said in an interview. “We’re going to invest harder into new products and capabilities, into hiring and potentially some additional M&A.” ISpot might be getting the biggest recent investment yet in alternative measurement players, but it’s far from alone. EDO, an audience measurement startup co-founded by actor Edward Norton, announced an $80 million venture investment earlier this month. Publicly held Innovid announced a $160 million acquisition of TV Squared in February. And Nielsen rival VideoAmp brought in a $275 million funding round in October. A brands’ guide to the Nielsen turmoil Investor interest in audience measurement contrasts with the rest of the tech sector, where the Nasdaq-100 is down 21% year to date, falling about twice as fast as the broader S&P 500 index. And many startups, particularly in the direct-to-consumer space, are pulling back on marketing spending and looking for other ways to conserve cash amid concerns that venture capital is getting scarce, said Lindsey Slaby, CEO of consulting firm Sunday Dinner. The Information reported last week that six tech startups alone laid off approximately 2,000 employees in the past month. So why are things different in audience measurement? “You’re talking about an industry that’s undergoing massive disruption,” Muller said. “When you step back and think about it, how many industries have a pure monopoly? You probably can’t think of too many. My guess would be we’re going from a world that wasn’t meant to be a monopoly to one where there are going to be multiple players, and because of that disruption, I think there’s a lot of appetite from investors to put dollars to work to capture the opportunity.” VideoAmp pegged its valuation from its last round of financing at $1.4 billion. ISpot isn’t announcing a valuation linked to the Goldman Sachs Asset Management investment, but Muller termed it a minority investment. iSpot, however, disclosed that it now has more than $100 million in annual recurring revenues and relationships with more than 400 of the “largest brands and media networks in the U.S.” to catalog and measure TV ads on linear TV and streaming. That $100 million represented 60% growth last year, Muller said, “which leads to a healthy valuation.” Longtime Nielsen challenger Comscore reported revenue of $367 million last year, but only 3.1% revenue growth with a market capitalization of less than $200 million. Of course, Nielsen still commands a far bigger valuation—$16 billion on $3.5 billion in annual revenue—from a private-equity consortium that moved to take the company private last month. That deal is pending and opposed by hedge fund Windacre Partnership, which is holding out for a bigger payday, though it’s unclear it can block the acquisition under corporate law in the U.K., where Nielsen is registered. While Comscore and VideoAmp are the Nielsen alternatives most frequently offered by TV networks at this point, iSpot is likely to win a place at more bargaining tables, Muller said, citing its recent certification as a currency alternative by NBC Universal. TV Upfronts and Newfronts 2022 calendar “We’ve been running testing with well over 60 advertisers, and we’re heading into the upfronts here with NBCU ready to transact, and we’re also pretty far along with other media companies,” Muller said. As of last year, iSpot’s client base was mostly made up of brand marketers and media companies, Muller said. In recent months, more agencies are giving it a try. “The test-and-learns we’ve done with nearly 70 brands represented all agency holding groups, who’ve been very involved in the process,” Muller said. “In particular, Publicis has been really leaning in with us and NBC.” Overall, 40% of the usage of iSpot’s measurement and planning dashboard is now by agencies, he said. Muller conceded that, in the coming upfronts, there’s more likely to be testing than actual deal writing on iSpot or other alternative currencies. “The truth is, a monopoly doesn’t go away overnight,” he said. “You can expect a significant amount to be transacted off non-Nielsen currencies, off of iSpot, in this coming upfront, and it’s going to continue to grow from there, but it’s going to be a multiyear process.”

Nielsen rival iSpot.tv gets $325 million Goldman Sachs investment

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