Verve Group a subsidiary of German ad software holding company MGI (Media and Games Investment unit) has acquired Dataseat. Bringing the total acquisitions by MGI to 35 in six years. Verve Group took on Dataseat’s team including founders David Phillipson and Paul Hayton. Pushing Verve Group's ranks to over 450 strong.

But why now?

The answer comes down to privacy. Privacy is key in Verve Group’s ever increasing expansion according to its co-CEO Ionut Ciobotaru. “We’ve been investing in privacy for a while now, from ATOM to Beemray” Ciobotaru said.

ATOM or ‘Anonymous Targeting on Mobile’ is Verve Groups inhouse solution. While Beemray is a targeting company acquired by the group in 2021.

What does Dataseat offer?

Dataseat’s technology allows developers more transparency of the process by bringing parts of mobile programmatic buying in-house. The company was founded in London in 2018. Co-founder David Phillipson said Dataseat does “what advertising should have been, or really, what advertising already was." Continuing "Why did BMW advertise on The Guardian? Because contextually it was a good fit.”

As opposed to behavioural data and device IDs, Dataseat utilises a combination of time, location and first-party developer data to drive machine learning models to inform custom bidding logic. Essentially Dataseat uses contextual signals.

Verve Group Context

Ciobotaru said Dataseat is “the last missing piece” to Verve Groups portfolio of nine companies. Acknowledging that now the hard work begins with scaling the data sets and their systems to bring everything together and combine with other assets.

Ciobotaru went on to say “We are now arguably complete.” Stating that remaining assets such as measurement and creative are interesting but for the moment are seen as “nice-to-haves” not necessities.

Since the acquisition of Verve by MGI in 2020, there has been a spree of companies consumed under the net of the then rebranded Verve Group division. The Verve Group houses MGI’s mobile ad-focused assets. As well as Dataseat, Verve Group also consists of aforementioned Beemray, UA platform AppLift, video ad platform LKQD, and mobile SSPs PubNative and Smaato.

Dataseat Context

As for Dataseat Phillipson recorded “It used to be that whoever had the most data would win even if they had suboptimal creative, because you knew exactly what a person likes.” Continuing “But, if you don’t know anything about the individual, creative becomes very important, and if you have control of the SDK you have ultimate control over the creative.”

And here lies the force behind Dataseat’s drive to join the Verve Group; access to the groups SDK install base. Spanning more than 4,000 publishers and apps internationally between the Verve Group, Dataseat will have the opportunity to leverage strategic advantage over others.

Phillipson went on to highlight the reason behind choosing Verve Group was to continue a degree of operational independence. Stating “If we were to join a gaming company, they would want it all for themselves and that wouldn’t have suited us because it wouldn’t have suited our clients.”

The procurement of Dataseat by Verve Group is another example of consolidation within the mobile gaming space. As the industry continues to evolve and consolidate be sure to check out Gamesforumfor the latest articles, news and insights in the mobile gaming industry.

By Gamesforum Staff