Durham North Carolina, March 7, 2024 - Kevel, the API led ad serving company, is announcing it has raised $23M in Series C funding. This round of funding was led by Series B investor Fulcrum Equity Partners with investment from Godwin Capital Group, Iberis Capital, Dunnhumby Ventures, as well as continued participation from Commerce Ventures. The new funding allows Kevel to deepen its retail media focus and drive advanced product innovation to retailers and marketplaces offering on-site retail media ad products.
“What makes retailers different from traditional publishers is that they have unique 1st party data and closed loop attribution,” stated James Avery, CEO, Kevel. “Kevel’s flexible API tools enable retailers to build differentiated retail media platforms leveraging their unique attributes to provide advertisers with innovative, cutting edge decisioning, ad formats, targeting, and site performance, all while keeping their data safe and secure at scale.”
In order to effectively expand further into the retail media market and continue to serve its retailers, Kevel is announcing the expansion of its senior leadership team with the addition of former Frame.io Chief Revenue Officer Puja Rios joining the company as President / COO. Her strategic appointment comes at a critical time for the business as it looks to capitalize on the retail media momentum, with ad spend expected to increase 10.4% to $141.7 billion in 2024.
With over 25 years of experience in the software industry, Rios has a proven track record of scaling revenue, building high-performance teams and delivering stellar results. Rios focus will centralize around the next phase of growth for Kevel, expanding the company’s client base further into the retail media sector.
“Kevel’s success and innovation in the retail media market reflects its relentless pursuit of pushing boundaries to deliver a solution that not only meets but exceeds the expectations of its customers,” commented Rios. “I am proud to join a company where innovation knows no bounds and where we are redefining what's possible in the ever-evolving landscape of retail media.”
This heightened focus on retail media comes at a pivotal time for the billion dollar retail advertising industry as it enters the age of differentiation. Retailers and marketplaces are striving to capture advertiser demand for inventory, flexibility and maximum ROI by offering the best mix of data targeting, ad formats and measurement while balancing the preservation of their brand, data assets and shopper experience.
Avery continued, “We see a large shift in the retail media landscape as brands focus on doubling down on the retail media networks that are delivering value, and cutting back from the retail media networks that are commoditized. This is pushing retailers to invest in moving from off the shelf solutions to building high-end, differentiated retail media networks. Adding Puja to our team is going to enable us to scale with more retailers and help them in their quest to earn their spot on the media plans of the largest brands in the world.
For more information about Kevel, please visit www.kevel.com
About Kevel
Kevel powers innovative, flexible ad tech infrastructure APIs that fuel its ad serving solutions. It’s unique offering empowers multi-brand retailers to launch differentiated retail media networks that improve the shopper experience while maintaining total control of their first-party data.
Kevel believes that every digital retailer should have the capability to scale their own distinct ad platform, just like big tech players like Amazon. Customers like Edmunds, Klarna, Delivery Hero, Leroy Merlin, Slickdeals, and other leading retailers and marketplaces all launched their own retail media network with Kevel.
The company has garnered numerous accolades, most recently earning recognition as one of the leading 100 innovative tech start-ups driving the future of brand-to-consumer in 2023 and awarded the MarTech Breakthrough Award for best overall ad tech company in 2022. Learn more at www.kevel.com
For media inquiries, please contact:
Jennifer Choo
Director of Marketing
jchoo@kevel.com
