Outbrain acquires video intelligence AG for $55 million

Founded in 2007, Zurich-based Video Intelligence is a contextual video technology platform connecting publishers, content creators and brands through video storytelling. Thanks to contextual video technology, the platform enables media owners to enhance user engagement and monetization by adding relevant video content to articles. It also provides advertisers with high-impact, highly viewable, brand-safe video ad inventory that drives awareness and user engagement. The vi’s solution is cookieless by design. Video intelligence was spun-out of Viewster in 2016. Among te investors is Creathor Ventures. 

With operations in ten countries across the globe, vi works with more than 1100 media owners worldwide, ranging from IDG to Der Spiegel and Funke. In addition, vi recently entered the CTV space, partnering with several premium providers, including Samsung TV+, with a unique contextual offering. In 2021, vi was awarded Best Video Platform by Digiday.

Outbrain, a leading recommendation platform for the open web, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire vi for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $55 million, funded by $46.75 million of balance sheet cash and 412,500 Outbrain shares. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022 and is expected to be accretive in the first year.

The acquisition allows Outbrain to strengthen its video offering for media owners and advertisers. To this day, Outbrain’s technology enables 10 billion daily recommendations to consumers across more than 7,000 online properties and connects advertisers to these audiences to grow their business. Founded in 2006, Outbrain is headquartered in New York with offices in 18 cities worldwide.

“We are delighted to join Outbrain and become a core part of creating the leading video engagement platform,” said Kai Henniges, Co-Founder and CEO of vi. “Our years of video expertise and unique offering for publishers and CTV providers are a perfect addition to Outbrain’s leading market position and premium global media owner partnerships. Together we will accelerate our mission to inspire, inform and entertain users by putting video in context. We believe we have found a great match between our companies’ cultures, and we share the same vision of the future of media.”

David Kostman, Co-CEO of Outbrain said, “The combination with vi will allow us to deepen our partnership with media owners, providing mid- and top-of-article video solutions. It will also expand our addressable market, introducing high-quality in-stream video inventory to support our brand advertisers. We see significant synergies between our companies and we are very excited to welcome the incredibly talented and experienced vi team to Outbrain,” added Yaron Galai, Co-Founder and Co-CEO.

(Press release / RAN)