Cinven

Investment in global provider of high-growth digital advertising technology

International private equity firm, Cinven, today announces that it has signed an agreement to invest in RTB House (‘the Company’), a leading global provider of state-of-the-art retargeting technology for leading brands, for an undisclosed consideration.

Headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, RTB House is leveraging deep learning algorithms in order to enable its retail clients to deliver highly relevant digital advertising campaigns to potential customers who have displayed a purchase intent. RTB House has a blue-chip customer base of close to 1,500 clients worldwide including Adidas, Trivago, Orange and Walmart. Established in 2012, RTB House has global operations with 20 offices worldwide and employs more than 400 people across EMEA, APAC and the Americas.

RTB House has achieved several awards for its strong growth and innovative technology. In 2018, RTB House won The AIconics Award in Best Application of Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) for Sales & Marketing; and was named by the Financial Times as the 8th fastest growing company in the technology sector in Europe.

Cinven’s TMT Sector team worked closely with its Emerging Europe Regional team to develop this primary investment opportunity, given the following attractive attributes:

  • Strong structural growth trends in the global digital advertising software market;
  • Innovative application of AI;
  • Blue-chip customer base of leading brands globally;
  • Opportunity to accelerate the Company’s growth organically; and
  • Excellent management team, led by Robert Dyczkowski, Chief Executive, Bartłomiej Romański, Chief Technology Officer, Daniel Surmacz, Chief Operating Officer, and Wojciech Głowacki, VP of Sales, with a proven execution track record and significant sector technology experience in advertising and e-commerce.

Cinven’s strategy for RTB House is to work alongside the industry leading management team to:

  • Further internationalise the business drawing on Cinven’s presence in the US;
  • Continue investing in the Company’s cutting edge technology;
  • Selectively pursue value- accretive buy and build acquisitions; and
  • Further professionalise the business with international best practices.

Chris Good, Partner at Cinven, said:

“RTB House is a very exciting business that has demonstrated significant growth, has a strong blue-chip client base, and impressive market-leading technology. 

“We look forward to working with the highly talented management team to further grow the business internationally, both organically and through acquisitions. There are particularly exciting growth opportunities in North America where Cinven has previously successfully grown technology-related businesses including CPA Global.”

Adam Prindis, Principal at Cinven, added:

“RTB House operates in a highly dynamic and fast-growing segment of the technology sector. As e-commerce continues to grow, retailers are focusing increasingly on ways to improve their marketing mix with retargeting playing a very important role. We are very excited about the investment in RTB House which offers truly differentiated solutions, based on advanced AI.”

Robert Dyczkowski and Bartłomiej Romański, CEO and CTO of RTB House, commented:

“We are delighted to be working with Cinven. The team’s expertise in the TMT sector, as well as Cinven’s clear ability of working with companies to internationalise their businesses, will immensely benefit RTB House. We will continue to invest in our state-of-the art and innovative technology to drive the Company’s business performance.”

Paweł Chodaczek, the Company’s co-founder and lead investor prior to the transaction, added:

“I am proud of the remarkable success that Robert, Bartłomiej and the whole RTB House team have achieved and that I have had the pleasure to support them at the challenging earliest stages. Cinven’s investment is a sign of not only great appreciation for the team’s efforts so far, but also a unique chance to boost the company’s further growth.”

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory and antitrust approvals.

Advisors to Cinven on the transaction included: Clifford Chance, Deloitte, Medialink, Prohaska, RBC Capital Markets and Vienna Capital Partners.

Advisors to the Company and Shareholders on the transaction included: CC Group and Weil.

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