Samba TV acquires Semasio
November 1, 2024

Samba TV, a provider of TV technology for audience data and omniscreen measurement, has announced its acquisition of Semasio, a provider of contextual targeting and audience data solutions. Samba TV says the acquisition enhances its capabilities in delivering privacy-first targeting across digital and connected TV (CTV) platforms, further solidifying its position as a key player in AI-powered omniscreen advertising.
By acquiring Semasio, Samba TV will expand its global footprint as well as its capabilities for advertisers to define and reach granular audience segments through a unified approach that combines contextual, behavioural, and demographic data. Semasio, with over 100 customers in 50 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, maintains over 1 billion stable user profiles globally and analyzes over 2.5 billion web pages each month, enabling advertisers to optimise campaigns in both ID-based and ID-less environments.
“Our vision is that AI-generated data and insights will create high-performance, privacy-first advertising solutions, so we are doubling down on that with this acquisition,” said Samba TV Co-founder and CEO Ashwin Navin. “Samba’s AI capabilities have been focused on streaming video, but we are now complemented by Semasio’s semantic analysis of the open web. While our competitors are faltering or shutting down, we are accelerating and doing so with the power of GenAI as a tailwind for our business, without compromises to data protections and privacy.”
The acquisition enables Samba TV to expand the availability of its AI-powered solutions by integrating its video data into Semasio’s platform, enhancing advertisers’ ability to reach consumers with contextual relevance across digital, mobile, and CTV platforms. The Semasio platform is already widely deployed among programmatic trading desks enabling brands, agencies, and data owners to expand and activate first-party and third-party data at scale in dozens of countries worldwide. This combined offering addresses the increasing need for brands to operate in a cookie-less, privacy-conscious world, where first-party data and contextual intelligence are crucial for success.
“Before this acquisition, we were partners with Semasio and saw huge potential in the platform and for the team behind it,” said Samba TV CCO Aden Zaman. “As a first-party data owner, we recognise and appreciate the importance of identity resolution, data distribution, and onboarding. The acquisition of Semasio expands our value proposition to data companies with global reach into the world’s most important media platforms.”
Semasio CEO Jeff Ragovin will be transitioning leadership of the company to General Manager Zac Pinkham. Reflecting on the development, Ragovin, who successfully led Semasio as CEO, remarked: “Joining forces with Samba TV empowers us to fully realize Semasio’s vision by expanding investment into our next-generation platform, which seamlessly integrates audience-based and contextual targeting with greater reach across more channels. I’m excited to see how Samba TV’s expertise and resources will propel Semasio to new heights.”
“We’re excited to join forces with Samba TV globally to bring our capabilities to a broader audience,” added Pinkham. “Our unified targeting approach, combined with Samba’s deep measurement insights and video viewership data, will enable advertisers to achieve greater reach and increased ability to accurately measure the results.”
“We are enthused to see Semasio’s semantic analysis of the open web come together with Samba AI for streaming video,” said National Media Chief Innovation Officer Adam Wise. “The combined footprint creates a contextual targeting powerhouse that can address the most valuable audience attributes marketers care about, while being uniquely specific, scalable and privacy forward.”
“As a long-standing partner of Semasio, we’re excited by the news that Semasio’s semantic targeting capabilities will be combined with Samba TV’s comprehensive global first-party data and advanced AI solutions,” said Acxiom SVP of Channel Partnerships Martin Wexler. “This integration brings new possibilities to our data activation strategies and will unlock increased value for our clients in their cross-channel marketing efforts.”
Semasio will continue to operate as an independent business led by Pinkham who has been appointed general manager.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.