• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 15, 2017

Upday -- Axel Springer’s mobile news aggregator -- has signed on to Inneractive’s INNEX mobile ad exchange, the partners are expected to announce Wednesday.

Inneractive’s INNEX should help Upday sell its mobile inventory programmatically, via private marketplaces and the open exchange.

The partnership is part of a broad shift toward programmatic, according to Aneta Nowobilska, director of advertising at Udpay.

“We have decided to invest significant efforts into selling our inventory programmatically, both directly to buyers and via the open exchange,” Nowobilska stated. The deal comes on the heels of the German media group’s decision to expand Upday’s footprint from four to 16 European countries, before the end of the year. 

Launched in Germany, Poland, the UK and France last year, Upday was born out of an exclusive pre-installation partnership with Samsung.

In recent years, Axel Springer has sought to balance out its portfolio with digital-first publications. In late 2015, for instance, it acquired Business Insider for $343 million. It also holds a majority stake in eMarketer, and 50% of Politico.

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Inneractive has sought to set its programmatic platform apart by combining a mobile Supply Side Platform (SSP) with an Ad Exchange that combines RTB with native and video ad solutions.

Axel Springer is one of the largest digital publishing houses in Europe