• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 7, 2022

Equativ, an independent ad monetization platform, Thursday announces a strategic investment in Nowtilus, a Germany-based video personalization company helping broadcasters and publishers transition to digital streaming.

The move is the latest in a series of acquisitions and partnerships accelerating the company's growth in connected television (CTV).

The Paris-based company, which launched in the United States in 2014, supports brands worldwide, but about 40% of its business comes from the U.S., according to Arnaud Créput, CEO at Equativ.

“We have 85 people working in New York and growing fast,” he said.

In the past year, Equativ developed a full interoperable TV stack, with the acquisition of DynAdmic, with the launch of the TVMOTIK alliance before rebranding in June 2022 from Smart Adserver, a publisher-focused ad server and supply-side platform (SSP).

“The two founders and key people in Nowtilus are experts in digital TV,” he said. “It’s very fragmented, digital TV, but they can focus on viewability, channels, and have a niche in audio.”

Equativ’s business partnership spans a year, but Nowtilus will continue to operate independently, with the Serverside.ai brand remaining unchanged, to provide a stand-alone server-side ad insertion (SSAI) solution for OTT, HbbTV and Audio.

The integration of Nowtilus’ core SSAI functions into Equativ’s programmatic video ad-tech stack will provide broadcasters and operators with live video advertising insertion capabilities.

Video rights owners, distributors, and aggregators will also have the flexibility to manage revenue from direct sales with the power of reaching programmatic buyers.

Features of the joint offering will include header budding, ad routing, ad-break management, and dynamic ad substitution via Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV).

Nowtilus contributed to the definition of the technology standard that allows companies to personalize the ads

Equativ, which has been building digital technology for 20 years, intends to build an open framework for SSAI integration with other vendors.

The company’s goal is to maximize ad revenue and performance by combining key attributes of TV ad management in an integrated and open monetization platform.