Exclusive: Pinterest to acquire CTV ad company tvScientific
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Pinterest has agreed to acquire tvScientific, a connected television (CTV) advertising platform that automates and optimizes ad buying for marketers, executives told Axios.
Why it matters: The deal will help expand Pinterest's advertising business by bringing its user base of high-intent shoppers to tvScientific's CTV clients.
- "At Pinterest, we create full-funnel capabilities," CEO Bill Ready tells Axios. "And now — with this acquisition — we're bringing together those capabilities that allow advertisers to do connected TV advertising with performance advertising measurement."
How it works: Pinterest's platform — which helps users discover inspiration for shopping — has 600 million monthly active users, making it one of the largest destinations for high-intent shoppers.
- The company uses artificial intelligence to make personalized content recommendations and ads for its users that help fuel their shopping journey.
- For CTV advertisers, this type of data is extremely valuable because it allows them to target audiences in a way that's more efficient and easier to measure.
- Pinterest's data will let tvScientific's CTV advertising clients track sales outcomes and shopping conversions.
- "There's only a handful of companies in the world with Pinterest's scale with high user intent in search," tvScientific CEO and co-founder Jason Fairchild told Axios. "That's a very unique asset combined with what we're doing."
State of play: The company and its 160 employees will continue to operate independently under Pinterest, and the firm will retain its branding. The two companies will evaluate any sales and data synergies they can realize after the acquisition closes.
- While Pinterest declined to disclose deal terms, it did note that the acquisition will require regulatory review, which is customary for deals valued at over around $125 million.
Between the lines: Pinterest believes its data is best to help CTV advertisers optimize their campaigns, in part because of the platform's neutrality.
- "We are not a TV content provider," Ready said. "When you look at where else performance advertising can be happening on CTV, it tends to be in places that are themselves providers of CTV content."
Catch up quick: tvScientific was founded in 2020 and has raised around $60 million to date.
- Pinterest and tvScientific had a commercial partnership before striking a merger deal, which is part of what gives Pinterest confidence that the acquisition will be successful and accretive to its business.
Zoom out: Pinterest has done a handful of deals over the past decade, but this marks its first deal since 2022, when the firm bought The Yes, an AI-driven shopping app.
What's next: Fairchild believes the marriage of Pinterest's high-intent search data with its CTV ad tech marks the beginning of a broader evolution in making CTV advertising more efficient.
