Bedrock Platform Fund Raise; DV Invests In FirstPartyCapital Fund; What “Liberation Day” Means For Ad Tech Investment
Bedrock Platform, The Future Of Ad Tech Infrastructure
FPC funds pick-and-shovel ad tech companies, empowering ad nets, data vendors, publishers, and agency trading desks (or the “ad tech middle”) to make money. That’s our raison d’etre.
There is no better example of this type of offering than Bedrock Platform. Bedrock is the true heir to IPONWEB and AppNexus.
It is the buy-side infrastructure made for a time of absolute chaos and opportunity - and it’s difficult not to get excited about this company's unbelievable potential.
Bedrock Platform has been in stealth mode for over a year, building out the ad tech solution that will define this new era. It is also in beta with a few clients.
Bedrock is primed for the big time. FPC has never seen a more chaotic, fragmented, and opportunistic landscape to sell a product like Bedrock Platform.
If there were one portfolio company to invest in via the FPC syndicate portal, Bedrock Platform would be it. By good fortune, the company is looking to raise a small seed round (£400K).
FPC Fund 1 is already all in on this one, and Bedrock, one of our magnificent seven, is coming with us into Fund 2.
But in truth, this company, more than any other, screams disruption - around the “ad tech middle”, take rates, new standards, the demand-side/supply-side convergence, and AI adoption.
To help distill all the good stuff, FPC has listed seven reasons for investing in Bedrock Platform (see below).
The deal is live on the FPC syndicate, so it's time to invest.
You can access the Bedrock Platform syndicate deal here: https://investors.firstpartycapital.com/deal/detail/8b6b6515-ff7c-4c86-840a-460612a02e6d.
7 Reasons Why FPC Invested - & Why You Should Invest - In Bedrock Platform:
The future of buy-side infrastructure: We have had many impressive infrastructure companies in ad tech over the years, building solutions for brands, publishers, agencies, ad nets, and the Lumascape. IPONWEB was the industry’s quintessential infrastructure partner, developing custom targeting and optimisation weaponry. AppNexus was a go-to for most programmatic ad tech in its heyday. To an extent, Breeswax (pre-Frewheel acquisition) was powering many innovative buy-side solutions. For over a decade, ad tech product development and innovation were consolidated in a handful of DSPs. That has now all changed. The rise of the “ad tech middle” and new categories like SSAs (Super SIgnal Aggregators) and PSVs (Proprietary Signal Vendors) is seeing innovation emerge from new independent players. In an era of data privacy, signal loss, first-party data, changing standards and ever-evolving economics, Bedrock is built to be the next generation programmatic platform.
Attacking bloated margins: It remains incomprehensible that programmatic take rate fees remain so stubbornly high. The success of sell-side curation is primarily a product of this economic imbalance. The adage, “your margin is my opportunity”, has never rung so true. Bedrock Platform is built to operate in the low take rate era, allowing the “ad tech middle” to make more money. We will see the programmatic execution take rate go to the low single digits over the coming years. Bedrock is best placed to cause severe disruption to legacy players, becoming the buy-side platform of the “ad tech middle”.
Buy-side curation champion: There is much discussion about sell-side curation, but it is possible to do this from the buy side. Bedrock enables traders to do CLC (Closed-Loop Curation), a cleaner, more effective, and cost-efficient way to do curation at scale. Full-managed service solutions will move to Bedrock Platform, as they look to make more margin and make curation work.
Go-to for sell-side curation activation: Sell-side curation is, indeed, having a moment. The humble deal ID is now the star of the ad tech show. The problem is that this process remains MASSIVELY inefficient. DV360 and TTD hold the paper for most of the big brands when activating the majority of PMPs. It isn’t working - both operationally and financially. It’s invariably challenging to run deal IDs via the big two. That’s why we have a whole new ad category around optimising sell-side curation. It’s also a waste of your media spend activating curated deals via a DSP at a 15% to 20% fee range. It should be a low, low, single-digit transaction. Bedrock Platform will ultimately replace these two DSPs in the sell-side curation supply chain and become the go-to for PMP activation, helping buyers deliver deal IDs at scale without sacrificing margin. The graphic below beautifully visualises Bedrock’s fundamental importance in ad tech going forward.
World-class team: There is only one word to describe the Bedrock Platform team: stellar. The team comprises IPONWEB, Google, FreeWheel, Microsoft, and Xandr alumni. Bedrock has proper ad tech DNA, having developed and sold some of the industry’s most noteworthy ad tech solutions.
FirstPartyCapital network effect: There is a lot of cross-polination between Bedrock Platform and the other FPC portfolio companies. Bedrock will end up powering and partnering with much of our portfolio. The extended LP network (now 200 and growing) is also unearthing many significant opportunities. Never has an FPC portfolio company this primed to benefit from our network.
SEIS/EIS: UK investors have a tax rebate opportunity on this investment. The first £250K is covered by SEIS (50% rebate), and the remainder has EIS coverage (30% rebate). Regardless of the tax rebate, this will be one of our portfolio’s most significant exits, so getting in at this valuation is a no-brainer.
Again, you can access the Bedrock Platform syndicate deal here: https://investors.firstpartycapital.com/deal/detail/8b6b6515-ff7c-4c86-840a-460612a02e6d.
DV Invests In FirstPartyCapital Fund
It’s official because it was on the FT. That’s right, DV are investing in FirstPartyCapital.
Rich did an excellent job articulating the significance of the investment and partnership in a LinkedIn post. This quote sums it up perfectly:
“This isn’t just a financial investment — it’s a bold signal of DV's commitment to the industry's future and a great endorsement of the work we have been doing over the last 4 years.
It’s a major milestone for us at FPC, and will add a huge amount of value to our portfolio of adtech, martech & digital media startups, bringing new commercial opportunities and strategic partnerships that will help our companies to scale through DV's global distribution channels.”
You can read Rich’s post in full here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7313213668450533381/?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(activity%3A7313213668450533381%2C7313443650053570560)&dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A(7313443650053570560%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7313213668450533381).
There's not much to add to this other than if a public company valued at $2 billion can see the clear upside in getting closer to FirstPartyCapital, why can’t you? It’s a fair question.
We are about to launch Fund 2. Get in touch.
How Mercantilism Could Reshape Ad Tech
The US recently celebrated “Liberation Day”. President Trump and his mercantilistic-loving pals levied massive tariffs on global trading partners.
The US government sees it as a strategy to address trade imbalances with other nations. Odd that the party of Reagan would take such an anti-free trade position.
FPC is not here to be political. It is what it is. Voters elected Trump, and he has a mandate to take hard action against what he perceives as unfair economic practices.
That is their political prerogative. FPC is only interested in the unintended consequences of rampant mercantilism.
The EU, for instance, is preparing a series of reciprocal tariffs. One scenario that ad tech investors should be aware of is a possible tariff hike on US services—a big old chunky $100 billion category.
This could make US cloud, digital platforms, and ad tech much more expensive in Europe. If this happens, there is a real chance you will get into a full-blown trade war.
In that instance, does the US become more isolated from the rest of the world? The ROW trades freely, and the US lives in splendid isolation - self-sufficient, yes, but knee-capped on global ambitions.
In that world, localised ad tech plays do well. Armed by the best pick-shovel ad tech companies (cc FirstPartyCapital portfolio), these new entities eat into digital platform, walled-garden and US ad tech spend.
Brian Weiser, who has been sounding the alarm on this from an advertising industry perspective, had some interesting thoughts on a recent Marketecture episode.
Listen from 20.53 onwards for Brian’s impressive take on tariffs:
Now, who is best placed to handle this chaos? That’s right, readers: FPC. As our friends at DoubleVerify acknowledged with their investment, it’s good to be diversified.
Nobody understands the global market like we do. Nobody has our global network. And nobody has a portfolio of companies that instinctively understand how to make money outside the US.
This month, we are launching a new £50 million fund to invest in brilliant ad tech solutions that will underpin and innovate the global $1 trillion ad market (with or without the US).
Even if none of the above comes to pass, FPC will still win.
Let’s start having that conversation now.
Until next week, loyal reader. Stay safe and trade freely.