MONTREAL, April 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SourceKnowledge, the open web, cost-per-click (CPC) ad network that increases yield for publishers and incremental reach for retailers, today announced it has been acquired by mrge, the leading global platform for commerce advertising. mrge is backed by Waterland Private Equity, founded in 1999 and valued at € 14 billion.
The deal expands the global reach of mrge in North America with SourceKnowledge’s roster of direct advertisers and thousands of publishers and brings SourceKnowledge’s programmatic technology to mrge’s existing retailer and publisher clients. SourceKnowledge will operate as a member of mrge which includes: digidip, shopping24, and Yieldkit.
According to McKinsey, commerce media has the potential to generate over $1.3 trillion of enterprise value in the United States.
Patrick Hopf, President of SourceKnowledge said, “mrge and Waterland are clearly the right partners to help SourceKnowledge continue to grow our platform by making it easy for retailers and publishers to connect on the open web. They are committed to long-term growth strategies and supporting our team with the resources to advance our products on an international scale – both organically and through acquisitions. We are incredibly proud of the growth that we’ve achieved on our own to date and excited to accelerate that as part of mrge.”
The SourceKnowledge ad network has gained significant traffic with brands like Wine.com, Chewy, Michael Kors, Macy’s, Womanizer and more as well as leading publishers attracted to its premium cost-per-click (CPC) model. In 2022, the company was included on Deloitte’s 2022 Technology Fast 500™ and was shortlisted for ExchangeWire’s The Wires for Best Ecommerce Customer Acquisition Strategy.
SourceKnowledge makes it seamless for advertisers to gain high-converting traffic at scale on the open web and retail brands can easily add micro-influencers to their media mix through the platform.
For publishers, SourceKnowledge offers its SmartBidder™ technology, which detects and rewards traffic that converts automatically and in real-time as well as a Fallback URL, where SourceKnowledge will send the inventory to another network if it cannot meet the bidfloor. In addition, the SourceKnowledge programmatic technology allows its publishers to sell their inventory through an auction in the marketplace. These technologies were developed to put control back into the hands of publishers to monetize their own traffic at their discretion, thereby supporting the open web.
Michael von Stern, CFO of mrge, said, “Backed by Waterland Private Equity we focus on a buy and build strategy with the goal of achieving market leadership through strategic acquisitions and accelerating organic growth through synergies. SourceKnowledge is a natural fit as it offers a unique product suite and commitment to maximizing the open web – earning it a strong-hold on the North American market. Given SourceKnowledge’s publisher-first mindset and goal-based offerings for advertisers, there are clear synergies with our other entities and goals for global expansion. We are thrilled to welcome SourceKnowledge to our team and look forward to growing together.”
To learn more about mrge, visit https://www.mrge.com/.
About SourceKnowledge
SourceKnowledge is an ad network that empowers incremental reach for retailers and increased yield for publishers. The performance-first platform allows retailers and DTC brands to spend based on their goals, and rewards publishers that drive conversions with a CPC model. The company has direct integrations with key eCommerce plugins – Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce.
Committed to ensuring that open-web publishers are compensated for their efforts in audience curation and content creation, the SourceKnowledge platform utilizes its SmartBidder™ technology to detect and reward converting traffic in real time.
SourceKnowledge is headquartered in Montréal, Québec. Learn more at: https://www.sourceknowledge.com/
About mrge
mrge is the world’s leading commerce advertising platform, connecting more than 5,500+ publishers, 55,000+ advertisers, and 100+ networks – in over 160 countries. In 2022, the group generated 3.5 billion affiliate clicks for its publisher clients, resulting in more than two billion euros of additional e-commerce revenue for its advertiser clients. By merging smart tools, technologies, and formats, mrge brings campaign messages closer to content, creating value for publishers, advertisers, and users alike.
mrge combines the strengths of four market-leading companies: digidip, which focuses on premium publishers with high traffic, shopping24, which offers product recommendation solutions, SourceKnowledge, an established CPC platform, and Yieldkit, which enables high reach and performance. mrge is backed by the private equity investment group Waterland as majority shareholder and is led by CFO Michael von Stern and CTO Nils Grabbert. mrge has offices in Germany (Hamburg, Berlin) and Canada (Montreal) and currently employs over 140 people.
About Waterland
Waterland is an independent private equity investment group that supports businesses in realizing their growth ambitions. With substantial financial resources and industry expertise, Waterland enables its portfolio companies to achieve accelerated growth both organically and through acquisitions. Waterland has offices in the Netherlands (Bussum), Belgium (Antwerp), France (Paris), Germany (Hamburg and Munich), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (London, Manchester), Ireland (Dublin), Denmark (Copenhagen), Norway (Oslo), Spain (Barcelona), and Switzerland (Zurich), and currently manages approx. 14 billion euros of investor commitments.
Since its founding in 1999, Waterland has consistently achieved above-average performance with its investments. Waterland stands in fourth place globally in the HEC/Dow Jones Private Equity Performance Ranking (January 2023) and is ranked seventh in the Preqin Consistent Performers in Global Private Equity & Venture Capital Report 2022 among the world’s private equity firms.
Media Contacts
Lacy Talton
Evergreen & Oak
lacy@evergreenandoak.com
252.467.5220
