Marketbridge buys Channel99, adding its first tech business in B2B push
What's the deal? MarketbridgeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a 35-year-old B2B marketing firm, has acquired Channel99, a B2B advertising and attribution technology company. Terms were not disclosed. The deal, announced in late October 2026, marks Marketbridge's first acquisition of a true technology business.
What does Channel99 do? Founded in 2022 by Chris Golec — also the founder of demand-side platform Demandbase — Channel99 spans platforms such as Microsoft/LinkedIn, Google and Meta rather than the open web. It links account-level ad exposure to sales opportunities and pipeline, a growing priority for B2B marketers seeking proof of campaign impact.
Why now? Chief executive officer Bob Ray and Golec, old acquaintances who overlapped at agency DWA, concluded that independent technology companies are struggling for "relevance" with large platforms and big clients. Facing the prospect of raising money to build out sales and marketing, Golec saw a faster route.
"This alignment gives us both speed in the marketplace," he said.
What's the endgame? Marketbridge has grown by acquiring agencies and consultancies — adding European agency Revere in 2025 and April Six for global reach, and partnering with Meltwater in July 2026. Unlike a holding company, it centralises these businesses rather than running them independently.
Channel99 adds a proprietary measurement layer, including agentic search analytics that gauge how a company ranks in chatbot responses versus rivals. Ray said the next step is an attribution framework linking agentic search performance to sales and conversions.
The signal: The deal fits a broader move to fuse services, data and AI — Marketbridge also launched an AI-search visibility offering alongside the acquisition. With terms undisclosed, its significance is strategic rather than a demonstrably large market-changing transaction.
Read more: adexchanger.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
