Investing In Adimo; Hitting Magical $1 Million Syndicate Milestone; And The MediaMath Resurrection

Sep 01, 2023

And the FPC newsletter is back. After a month-long hiatus, the FPC propaganda machine is once again cranking into gear.

A few pieces of housekeeping before we get into this week’s stories:

The FPC newsletter will go to a biweekly publication schedule.
In addition to the biweekly edition, we will, from time-to-time, publish ad-hoc editions for important portfolio and event/conference (like MadTechMoney and Cannes) news.

It’s really important that readers understand the real objectives of this newsletter: 1) we want your money to invest in ad tech and 2) tell you why our portfolio companies are better than everyone else. It’s really that SIMPLE.

Why We Invested In Adimo

Everyone reading this knows that retail media is the hottest category in ad tech. It’s not properly formed yet and NOBODY can read the tea leaves on how the space will evolve.

What we do know is that being one step/click away from a sales outcome is very attractive to buyers - particularly CPGs.

Standardisation around ad formats, targeting and measurement is a long way off in retail/commerce media.

One format that we believe will get traction is the shoppable ad format. Adimo is the leading solution in the market. It already works with a number of big CPG brands - and has a number of big agency trading deals in the pipeline.

The company’s solution is getting traction at the right time in the evolution of commerce/retail media.

Here are a few good reason why we invested:

Strong team and ad tech muscle memory: Gavin Stirrat, Adimo CEO, is a stalwart of the ad tech space - and one of the smartest operators in the industry. He is building a strong team around him that will grow this company to a key retail media activation layer.
Its competitive set is a little overrated: MikMak is Adimo’s nearest competitor. MikMak has raised $14 million in funding, and is your typically loud and abrasive US ad tech play. The thing is though, Adimo keeps retaining top CPG brands and winning new briefs in RFPs. MikMak is good, but Adimo is so much better.
Synergies with FPC ad tech portfolio: FPC literally gets sick-in-the-month whenever it is forced to use the word “synergy” in any sentence. Unfortunately, there is no other way to describe how good this Adimo investment will be for our other portfolio companies in terms of strategic partnerships and media activation. In short: a synergistic ad tech win for FPC and its investors.

Investors ❤️ FPC Syndicate: Hitting $1 Million Milestone On Lumen Syndicate Deal

Milestones are important to celebrate - especially anywhere outside the US ad tech bubble. For the first time we hit the $1 million mark on an individual syndicate raise. Lumen, the infrastructure layer for attention, cracks the ceiling on ad tech syndicate funding.

We think we might end up raising between $1.2 to $1.5 million on this syndicate deal.

We have been sharing deal flow with our 1000-strong pool of smart ad tech syndicate investors for nearly 3 years, and it is clear what they want: category-defining companies that will win; leading technology that attacks big problems; a strong team with a razor sharp industry narrative; and a clear path to an exit.

The good news reader is that the Lumen deal is still open, and you can still invest. UK investors can avail of EIS cover until mid September.

Just 6 reasons we are all in on this one:

Attention is the ultimate post-cookie category. It will replace viewability and become a key post-campaign measurement metric when Google pulls the plug on the cookie in 2024.
Also important to note that attention is heavily used in gaming, TV and increasingly big walled garden measurement. The perfect post-cookie omnichannel measurement layer.
Lest we forget that attention is becoming the go-to pre-bid signal for programmatic buys.
Lumen is the leading infrastructure solution. It works with everyone, powering everything from hold co buying solutions to platform products (cc IAS et al) to global walled gardens.
Lumen is the leading solution provider of actual human attention. Unlike “enhanced viewability” that’s modeled on assumption and “educated” guessing, Lumen's core product is built on human-based panels, enabling products to optimise successfully to specific goals.
Marry that scaled proprietary data asset with strong ad tech DNA (infused by the recent merger with Avocet) and you get a WIN in the attention category.

You can still get in on this Lumen syndicate deal by clicking link below.

https://investors.firstpartycapital.com/deal/detail/ecab67b9-37a9-44b9-9f84-3fd14d06d607

A Few Thoughts On The Recent MediaMath Acquisition

The MediaMath drama seems to have finally come to an end. From its peak valuation of $1 billion, the DSP was sold last week for $22 million.

To be honest, FPC is sad to see this weak outcome for a once mighty ad tech company.

MediaMath was the OG of programmatic. It might not have “invented” RTB, but it quickly became the leading platform for a now $100 billion industry. And was one of the leading solutions in the space until its slow decline over the past few years.

Let’s not get into specifics of how we got here. We will leave it to actual journalists like Ronan Shields, Seb Joseph and Lara O’Reilly to pick apart the details of the MediaMath journey.

Instead FPC wants to focus on this rehabilitation exercise. Here are the key areas the new owners might have to consider:

Can MediaMath reach the heights of DV360 and TTD? Is it an impossible task? Do they have the stomach for the financial burn and competitive fight to make that a reality?
What about the money owed to vendors, SSPs and publishers? Will that need to be paid first before any supply is turned on?
Are API integrations enough to attract former customers? Will it be sufficent to entice back buyers who have been snapped up by other DSPs?
And what about staff? Money is owed to people. Has trust been eroded by the bankruptcy process? And wouldn't the best people have moved on anyway?

If you are reading this and thinking that the above sounds like a proper mess, you would not be wrong.

Imagine for a minute that you could buy a DSP that was better in capability, had no strings (financial burdens), had no historical stigmas attached and was infinitely better valued.

Well readers, you have come to the right place (we did warn you that this newsletter was all about self-interest).

FPC is selling a world class DSP outright, and also via a licensing agreement.

It has all the bells and whistles any modern enterprise DSP should have, including API integrations with major exchanges and supply; and core SPO capabilities that the market is calling for.

If there is any interest among our readership in acquiring this asset, click on the link below and fill out the form:

https://firstpartycapital.com/buy-a-dsp/

And on that ridiculous over-the-top self-serving note, we will bid farewell. Until next time readers.