Ad software company Viant valued at $2.5 billion in Nasdaq debut

The logo of Viant Technology Inc. (DSP) is pictured on the display outside the Nasdaq Market Site in Times Square during the company’s IPO in New York City, New York, U.S., February 10, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Sugar

(Reuters) – Shares of Viant Technology Inc jumped 76% in their market debut on Wednesday, giving the advertising software company a market capitalization of $2.53 billion.

Viant’s shares opened at $44, well above their initial public offering price of $25 per share. The company offered 10 million shares in the IPO, raising about $250 million.

Founded in 1998 by brothers Tim, Chris and Russ Vanderhook, Viant offers a cloud-based platform that allows ad buyers to plan, create, execute and measure their digital advertising investments.

“For us, it was really seizing on this transition that’s happening within digital advertising, a move away from cookies or device tracking, more towards people-based,” Chief Operating Officer Chris Vanderhook told Reuters.

People-based marketing uses an individual’s identifiable information, such as an e-mail address, to track their activity across devices and browsers and it has proved to be more effective than cookie-based marketing.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Vanderhook said marketers are selecting people-based platforms for their advertising needs.

For the year ended Dec. 31, 2019, Viant reported a profit of $9.9 million on revenue of $164.9 million.

BofA Securities and UBS Investment Bank were the lead underwriters for Viant’s offering.

(Corrects CEO’s first name to Tim from Chris in paragraph 6 and COO’s first name to Chris from Tim in paragraph 4; Also corrects date to Dec. 31 from Dec. 21 in paragraph 7)

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