clypd

Founded in 2012 by Joshua Summers and Doug Hurd, clypd developed a sell-side advertising technology platform specifically for the television industry. Joshua Summers, who served as CEO, brought over 15 years of experience in the ad-tech space, including a senior role at WHERE, which was acquired by PayPal. This background positioned clypd to bridge the gap between traditional television advertising and modern programmatic methods. The company successfully raised approximately $37.8 million in funding over four rounds from investors including Atlas Venture and RTL Group.

Clypd operated as a supply-side platform (SSP), providing television media owners, such as broadcast and cable networks, with tools to automate and optimize their ad sales. The platform was engineered to handle both linear TV and over-the-top (OTT) inventory, enabling data-driven ad decisions and enhanced audience targeting. Essentially, it served as a translation layer, allowing the programmatic buying and selling techniques common in digital advertising to be applied to the television ecosystem. This approach helped media owners to manage their ad inventory more efficiently and unlock new revenue streams by attracting digital-focused advertising budgets. Clients like Cox Media, Discovery, and CBS utilized the platform to connect with ad buyers in private marketplaces.

The company's core product was a TV sales platform that provided workflow automation and data-enhanced decision-making. It allowed media owners to define and control the pricing and sale of their inventory while simplifying transactions for addressable, live, and video-on-demand ads. In October 2019, clypd was acquired by Xandr, AT&T's advertising and analytics division, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition was a strategic move by Xandr to integrate clypd's advanced TV capabilities and accelerate the convergence of linear and digital ad buying, incorporating clypd's technology into its own sell-side platform, Xandr Monetize.

Keywords: television advertising, ad-tech, programmatic TV, supply-side platform, audience targeting, linear TV, ad sales automation, data-driven advertising, Xandr, media monetization