Index Exchange Makes Its First Acquisition With Machine-Learning Firm Rivr

Ad tech firm Index Exchange is acquiring Berlin-based Rivr Technologies GmbH. The seven-year-old machine learning company is focused on better curating the traffic supply-side platforms that Index provides to its buyers. The companies would not share the terms of the deal. “Our focus with the Rivr acquisition is to be able to help our demand-side platforms manage all of the supply that we manage for them,” Index CTO’s Ray Ghanbari told Adweek. The company processes over 270 billion slot requests daily. “None of our advertisers are in the position to manage 100% of the supply that we have available to them." Rivr marks the first acquisition in Index’s nearly two-decade history. The company said the purchase was made entirely from Index’s operating cash flow, with no outside funding raised. Every day, billions of auctions are run on the open web, routing advertisements to a panoply of publishers. As the ecosystem grows and becomes more convoluted, added to the difficult-to-track nature of the programmatic ecosystem, a growing concern for media agencies is whether their buys end up on the most relevant websites—and, in turn—in front of the right audiences. As such, ad tech vendors are finding various ways to optimize supply paths. “This is programmatic paying off its initial promise to make the buying and selling of advertising more efficient than it was in the past,” said Mark Wright, who leads global corporate development and M&A at programmatic advisory Prohaska Consulting. Wright added that programmatic still has not fully unlocked its potential for seamless automated advertising. With more research showing the opaqueness of the programmatic ecosystem, advertisers are looking to ensure their dollars reach the right eyeballs and aren’t squandered by middlemen. Recently, several demand-side platforms switched off integration with Google’s Open Bidding with the intention of making their supply chains more efficient, first reported by Adweek. Training algorithms based on DSP behavior Rivr’s technology works by learning what criteria media buyers value—and letting this behavior train the algorithm to further identify the kind of supply best suited for the advertisers’ needs, Ghanbari said. Similar to how the “For You” page on TikTok produces more relevant content the more you watch it, Index coupled with Rivr should produce better results for DSPs and their advertiser clients by studying their behavior. “The models are able to take that into account and adjust dynamically to the information that different DSPs are providing us through their behavior and their actions,” Ghanbari said. “We don’t have to presuppose what the valuable signal is.” Index has already been developing such technologies, Ghanbari said; in November 2021, Index announced a rebuilt exchange, with the goal of improving efficiency. But Ghanbari said Rivr represents an opportunity to turbocharge those efforts. “If there’s an opportunity to move faster and to add value to the industry, we don’t hesitate to make those kinds of decisions,” Ghanbari said. With the acquisition, Rivr’s research and development engineers will join Index’s engineering operation; Ghanbari said Index is effectively doubling its direct investment in machine learning. Rivr’s head of R&D Eran Udassin will take on a vp leadership role at Index, while Rivr’s CEO will join for an interim period. The acquisition will bring 11 new employees, focused on engineering, with Index opening a physical office in Berlin, Ghanbari said. Efficiency is a buzzy topic in ad-tech and a likely source of future merger and acquisition activity, Wright said, as advertisers puzzle over the high costs of the programmatic supply chain, which are more convoluted than more traditional media like television. Yahoo and Amobee DSPs Remove Google Open Bidding as a Source of Supply “You think about the number of hoops a brand dollar goes through on the supply chain before it reaches the final recipient of its advertising message and—increasingly—major marketers are saying no,” he said. By helping DSPs spot the most valuable supply, Index’s acquisition of Rivr should benefit the bottom lines of both advertisers and publishers. “Rivr technology is about delivering the most valuable needles out of the infinitely large haystack, which is the globally available ad supply,” Ghanbari said. “These efficiency efforts benefit buyers while driving incremental ad spend to media owners.”