Top AdTech Companies in San Francisco to Watch in 2023

Thanks to the emergence of AdTech, advertising in the modern digital age will never be the same again.

What is AdTech?

Simply put, AdTech (Advertising Technology) is a collection of technologies that are used to manage advertisements across multiple channels, such as search, display, video, mobile, and social, and include functions for targeting, design, bid management, analytics, optimization, and automation of digital advertising.  The global AdTech market size was valued at $886.19 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.7% from 2023 to 2030.

Many media companies are moving towards the ad-supported model as a result of the exponentially rising screen time, tighter privacy laws, and mounting financial pressures from the economy’s slow recovery.

In the AdTech industry, things move quickly. With 2022 having been an exciting year, 2023 looks just as promising. The global programmatic advertising spend is expected to touch $557 billion in 2023, up more than 100% from five years ago.

While Google’s decision to eliminate third-party cookies may have initially been seen as a threat to the future of digital marketing, advertisers and publishers are now more confident than ever that they can find alternative solutions.

With the USA being a major market, we’ve put together a list of innovative companies that are making a difference in 2023.

Disclaimer: the companies listed below are not officially ranked and are listed in no particular order.

Five San Francisco AdTech Companies To Watch in 2023

Publica

• Founder: Benjamin Antier
• Date Founded: 2016
• Funding: Unknown
• No. of Employees: 137

Publica is a leading demand-agnostic CTV Ad Server. Awarded best early-stage technology company at the 2020 AdExchanger awards & best sell-side programmatic platform at the 2021 Digiday Awards, Publica is trusted by global streaming publishers & smart TV manufacturers to power their ad pod construction, SSAI & unified auctions. Publica was acquired by Integral Ad Science in 2021.

AdRoll, a division of NextRoll

• President: Roli Saxena
• Date Founded: 2006
• Funding: Unknown
• No. of Employees: 158

AdRoll is a marketing and advertising platform that gives growing brands the power to connect with customers wherever they are. Its machine learning engine uses established data on 70% of the world’s online shoppers to predict behavior, ad engagement, and store performance better than anyone. AdRoll is a division of NextRoll Inc. and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Dublin, New York City, Salt Lake City, and Sydney.

Moloco

• Co-founder and CEO: Ikkjin Ahn
• Date Founded: 2013
• Funding: $191.6M, Series C
• No. of Employees: 474

Moloco is a machine learning company. It provides performance solutions that help companies around the world increase the ROI of their digital strategies to accelerate growth. Today, it offers a performance marketing platform, optimized for mobile advertising, with its machine learning engine at its core. Moloco Cloud DSP uses customers’ own first-party data to exceed game and app publishers’ return on ad spend (ROAS) goals.

Liftoff

• Co-founder and CEO: Jeremy Bondy
• Date Founded: 2012
• Funding: $6.8M, Series A
• No. of Employees: 656

Liftoff is the leading growth acceleration platform for the mobile industry, helping advertisers, publishers, and game developers scale revenue growth with solutions to market and monetize mobile apps. Liftoff’s solutions, including Accelerate, Direct, Influence, Monetize, Intelligence, and Vungle Exchange, support over 6,600 mobile businesses across 74 countries in sectors such as gaming, social, finance, ecommerce, and entertainment. Liftoff created Mobile Heroes, the industry’s best-known global community of over 3600 app marketers, monetization experts, and game developers whose mission is to advance the mobile marketing sector.

Tapjoy, acquired by ironSource

• Co-founder and CEO: Jeff Drobick
• Date Founded: 2007
• Funding: $105.6M, Debt Financing
• No. of Employees: 153

Tapjoy is revolutionizing the mobile advertising and app monetization industry. The company works with Brand Advertisers to help them reach their ideal mobile audience through rewarded video ads and our offerwall. It works with Publishers to help them acquire new users and monetize their mobile apps.

How Storm5 Can Help You

Storm5 is here to help you bring about change in the RetailTech industry. As a group of leading Advertising Technology executive search experts, we help organizations at the forefront of AdTech innovation. Storm5 can help you find the right senior talent for the right specialism, whether you are a start-up or looking to scale. If you are looking to expand your team, contact us.