Exclusive: Samba TV raises up to $60M venture debt
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Samba TV has secured up to $60 million in venture debt to scale through acquisitions and new AI-powered measurement tools, CEO Ashwin Navin exclusively tells Axios.
Why it matters: The funding underscores growing competition and pressure in the media measurement industry as advertisers seek real-time, cross-platform insights to optimize campaigns across TV and digital.
Zoom in: Horizon Technology Finance Corporation, an affiliate of Monroe Capital which has backed WPromote, InMobi and MediaAlpha, provided the financing.
- The deal includes an initial $30 million venture debt facility with the option for another loan of up to $30 million.
- Navin says Samba chose debt rather than equity because it's a "less dilutive" and "cheaper source of capital" given rising interest rates. Samba is profitable with revenue growing 20% to 30% year over year, he adds.
What they're saying: Mark Solovy, managing director and co-head technology finance group at Monroe Capital, says the firm was attracted to Samba due to the broader trends of increased video consumption and advertising on streaming and the company's access to first-party data.
- "There's a lot of data players in the marketing tech marketplace, but these guys have that first-party data. They're collecting it using their own resources versus buying it like some of the other players," Solovy says.
Catch up quick: Samba previously raised $69 million in equity funding. Backers include Align Ventures, GFR Ventures, Sony, Union Grove, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Liberty Global, Mark Cuban and August Capital.
- Samba has 300 employees.
The big picture: Samba competes with legacy firms like Nielsen to analyze audiences for publishers and advertisers across platforms.
- Navin says while competitors "focused on being Nielsen 2.0" following the accreditation issues, Samba prioritized streaming and digital measurement.
- "The world has moved beyond linear TV," Navin says. "But the companies that were chasing a linear TV currency were propping up linear TV as an existential requirement to win those clients."
- Amid a growing desire for new measurement solutions, Disney signed a deal with Samba in 2022 to provide real-time streaming data. Samba's other clients include Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Spotify and all major agency holding companies.
What's next: Samba filed IPO paperwork in 2021 but withdrew plans in 2022. Navin says the company has "a lot of the infrastructure" in place if the market opens back up.
- Navin says the funding could help Samba be a "vehicle to drive consolidation" in the measurement sector. The company has completed five acquisitions, including Semasio for contextual targeting last year and Disruptel for machine learning tech in 2022.
- "Every single one of them we would do again ... We've added great talent, new capabilities, teams in various parts of the world," Navin says. "We can probably take a bigger swing at the next one."
- Samba has been pursuing international growth. This summer, it announced a 40 market expansion with Acxiom, the data company now owned by Omnicom.
