• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 25, 2021

The advertising industry continues to see an uptick in initial public offerings this year. Among them is CTV and ad-measurement company Innovid.
It planned to go public through a merger with ION Acquisition Corp. 2 Ltd, which will serve as a publicly traded special-purpose acquisition company, with $253 million in trust.

Innovid’s valuation is estimated at $1.3 billion.

SPAC companies that want to go through a quick initial public offering (IPO) are on the rise.

A SPAC is a company with no commercial operations that is formed to raise capital through an IPO for the purpose of acquiring an existing company. The process has been in existence for decades, but recently became popular, attracting major underwriters and investors and raising a record amount of IPO money.

Last year, more than 50 SPACs were formed in the U.S., raising about $21.5 billion, according to Investopedia.

“Essentially, using SPAC lets a private company merge with a public company and start trading under its own ticker,” said Zvika Netter, co-founder and CEO at Innovid.

The entire process is not yet complete. The Federal Exchange Commission still needs to approve the plan. Then Innovid needs a ticker symbol in which to trade under. The company could potentially start trading by the end of this year.

When asked why take this route to take the company public, Netter said “we’re already profitable, so it’s not about the money as much as it is for us to keep growing and stay independent. The advertising industry is dominated by big tech like Facebook and Google. We wanted to ensure to our customers we will remain independent.”

Innovid grew 79% in CTV last year. Overall, the company will see about 38% growth, and will generate about $95 million in revenue this year, Netter said. “Connected TV this year will grow about 70% -- up from last year at about 80%,” he said.  

It’s important to note that Netter did not sell Innovid to ION Acquisition.

Innovid plans to extend the technology through integrations with top CTV publishers across international markets, the launch of additional personalized CTV ad formats, and the introduction of progressive identity solutions with the goal of advancing the underlying technology infrastructure supporting the TV advertising ecosystem’s shift from linear to digital.

Innovid, which has spent a decade focused on developing technology for CTV, and mobile and desktop TV, secured prior about $150 million of PIPE financing anchored by institutional investors Fidelity Management and Research Company LLC, Baron Capital Group, and others, including funds affiliated with ION and Phoenix Insurance.

Existing investors include Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital, Newspring, Genesis Partners and Vintage. They will remain shareholders under the structure.

Innovid’s SDK powers personalized and interactive experiences in CTV through direct integrations across more than 50 apps, providing the infrastructure layer behind the advertising shown by some of the biggest names in streaming including Roku, and Hulu.

It is also working to connect different parts of the TV ad-tech ecosystem by launching a consortium with leading independent programmatic platforms The Trade Desk, Magnite, and others.