Particular objective acquisition corporations have fallen out of favor. However demand-side platform AdTheorent, which went public through SPAC late final yr, has no regrets in regards to the route it took to IPO.

Being a part of a SPAC is “a brief standing, a way to an finish,” mentioned AdTheorent CEO Jim Lawson. “And that finish is turning into a public firm, which we now are.”

In July, AdTheorent merged with MCAP Acquisition Corp., a SPAC backed by its longtime investor Monroe Capital.

The deal raised round $315 million and valued AdTheorent within the neighborhood of $1 billion. “We achieved our goal,” Lawson mentioned. “Though now the turbulent market is clearly not enjoyable to look at …”

The inventory has declined roughly 41% since its debut.

AdTheorent, which was based in 2012 and has round 300 workers, began buying and selling on the NASDAQ below the ADTH inventory ticker on the finish of final yr. Its first earnings report hasn’t been scheduled but – as a smaller public firm, it’s not legally required to file till March – however in December, AdTheorent reiterated steering of a minimum of $161.6 in income and $106.2 in adjusted gross revenue for 2021.

Lawson spoke with AdExchanger.

AdExchanger: What’s your tackle the Unified ID 2.0 initiative?

JIM LAWSON: Whereas we help the hassle, it stays to be seen if the adoption and scale will probably be there. Truly, a few of what Google is doing with FLEDGE [and Topics] and different strategies for together with statistical or aggregated data within the bid request reasonably than tying data to a particular person is extra according to how our expertise operates.

What’s AdTheorent’s elevator pitch?

We’re a programmatic DSP. We use machine studying to foretell which impressions accessible for advert placement at any given second are probably to drive enterprise outcomes for our advertiser prospects, together with on-line actions and bodily world outcomes, like a retailer visitation or buying a product.

Who do you compete with most – I’m assuming Google and The Commerce Desk – and the way do you differentiate?

The Commerce Desk, DV 360 and Viant are the principle ones. We differentiate by specializing in efficiency. We work with a variety of impartial companies and types immediately, and we make the case for utilizing information science and machine studying to focus on adverts.

Different DSPs usually ingest bid requests that depend on both a cookie ID, a tool ID or an identifier just like the LiveRamp ID coming from a licensed listing that may embody in-market auto buyers, owners or another syndicated viewers.

They use that methodology as a result of it’s the simplest to activate. However we use machine studying fashions that basically correlate conversion occasions with the info that’s current when these conversion occasions happen.

How does it work, in easy phrases?

If you goal primarily based on a person ID, you’re by definition searching for that particular person.

What we’re asking is, when a conversion occurs – when, for instance, a credit-card utility is accomplished on a web site – which widespread information attributes are current most of the time? By figuring out these commonalities, we will predictably rating new impressions primarily based on previous conversion exercise. That’s why cookies going away or IDFAs being unavailable is just not actually a priority for us.

Why did it make sense to go public final yr?

Going public was about getting elevated visibility and scaling our enterprise. The advertising and marketing profit alone is useful, and we’ll additionally carry on increasing our gross sales and advertising and marketing efforts and investing in our platform and exploring methods to develop income quicker. There’s a variety of alternative in CTV, for instance.

Wall Avenue re-embraced advert tech final yr, however there’s additionally been some frothiness out there. Is the love affair going to final or is there a rockier street forward?

Among the Advert Tech 1.0 corporations weren’t including a variety of incremental worth. It was a variety of middleware. We had been round throughout the pullback, however we didn’t undergo as a result of we had been investing in options to drive measurable worth for advertisers.

There was a time, although, whenever you’d learn what advert tech corporations had been saying on their web sites and also you’d get a headache, as a result of it was onerous to know what any of it meant.

So, so far as frothiness, there’s at all times going to be gamers that are available and attempt to benefit from momentum and create companies primarily based on different individuals’s expertise. However I don’t suppose it’s going to harm the sector so long as different corporations are additionally on the market attempting to supply actual worth.

Let’s discuss in regards to the different huge development: consolidation. Planning any M&A?

In our 10 years, we’ve by no means had any kind of M&A exercise. We’ve solely grown organically from being a pure startup to a publicly traded firm.

However now, as a public firm, we’re fascinated by seeing how we will discover methods to speed up our progress. Worldwide enlargement is a spotlight, for instance, due to the best way we use information. It’s attention-grabbing to consider predictive promoting in a GDPR atmosphere the place we will use statistics to focus on with out private data.

We’re not dashing into something, although.

This interview has been edited and condensed.